Members of Black Lung Association attending a congressional hearing in DC
From an Article by Richard Miller, Confined Spaces, June 10, 2023
>> NOTICE ~ Richard Miller is a former congressional staffer and served as the Labor Policy Director for the Committee on Education and Labor. (This was initially posted on Confined Space, a newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues.)
This three-part guest blog examines the lengths coal companies will go to in order to evade their obligations to miners who develop black lung while working for them. Part I explained black lung and the benefit system in place for miners with the disease. And, Part II discussed how companies short-change that system. Part III below examines potential solutions.
In 2021, the Government Accountability Office found big problems with the Labor Department’s current rules because they do not require sufficient collateral to cover both current and future black lung liabilities. Moreover, the Labor Department is not required to update coal operators’ collateral levels on a regular basis to ensure that the coal operators have enough money set aside to fund their black lung liabilities.
And the problem has not gotten better. In January 2023, the Labor Department estimated that self-insured operators have another $700 million in self-insured black lung liabilities, but reserved only $120 million (17%) in collateral. GAO repeatedly urged the Labor Department to fix this broken system in congressional testimony.
To protect the Black Lung Trust Fund, the Labor Department proposed a rule in January that would tighten its self-insurance rules. It would require self-insured operators to provide surety equal to 120% of their current and future black lung benefit liabilities. In April, U.S. Reps. Bobby Scott, D-Virginia, and Alma Adams, D-North Carolina, commented that this proposal is “an elegant, reasonable and prudent solution.”
However, this reform is causing no shortage of gnashing of teeth, if not hysteria, in the C-suites of the coal companies. The same coal companies that gamed the system are now claiming that the new Labor Department proposal will drive them to the brink.
….. more in article …….
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Black lung disease results in the death of over 1000 miners each year. Since 1968, there have been approximately 76,000 severe cases with another 80,000 miners impaired. Generally, the exposure to coal dust and very fine mineral particles by coal miners results in a ~ 12 year reduction in life expectancy.
These results were found on the Internet, and attest to the terrible conditions to which miners are exposed. Marcellus shale drillers and frackers are also exposed to occupational lung disease conditions. The silica dust from frack sand is definitely hazardous. And, diesel exhaust results from the many trucks hauling fresh water, residual waste, produced water, condensate hydrocarbons, and sundry machinery and supplies.
Duane Nichols, PhD Chemical Engineer, June 11, 2023