Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 4, 1991 TAG: 9104040422
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Labor Secretary Lynn Martin is scheduled to announce today that the government will seek major civil penalties against the operators of more than 800 of the nation's approximately 2,000 underground coal mines for tampering with dust samples. In recent months, federal mine safety officials said they have discovered more than 5,000 incidents of sampling fraud.
In many cases, mine operators simply blew away or vacuumed some of the dust from government-approved sampling equipment before submitting it for inspection, officials said.
"It's a test that directly affects the lives of the workers," a Labor Department source said.
The United Mine Workers union has been a strong advocate in recent years of changing the federal inspection system to take the dust sampling out of the hands of the mine operators.
A Labor Department spokeswoman said Wednesday there would be no comment before Martin's announcement. Department sources, however, said they did not expect Martin to announce any new federal rules or standards to deal with the problem.
Earlier this year, Peabody Coal Co. pleaded guilty in federal court to three counts of tampering with dust samples and was fined $500,000. At the time, officials of the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration said they planned to seek similar civil penalties against other companies that tampered with dust samples and would be working with the Justice Department on possible criminal indictments against some coal companies.
by CNB