Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 4, 1991 TAG: 9104040631
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration has issued 4,710 citations to operators of 847 coal mines who turned in coal dust samples that showed evidence of tampering, Martin said.
Virginia has the third largest number of violations, the Labor Department said. Of the mines where tampering was thought to have occurred, 144 were in the state, compared with 301 in Kentucky and 243 in West Virginia.
The companies that have been charged include the four largest coal producers in Virginia: the Pittston Co.; Westmoreland Coal Co.; Island Creek Coal Co., a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum; and Consolidation Coal Co., a subsidiary of DuPont.
At Island Creek Coal Co.'s Pocahontas No. 3 mine in Buchanan County, 57 samples showed evidence of tampering, the goverment said. That was by far the largest evidence of tampering at a single mine in the state.
"I am appalled at the flagrant disregard for a law designed to protect coal miners against disabling lung disease," Martin said. "Altering test results could place lives in jeopardy."
The citations resulted from a 20-month investigation that began after an MSHA employee noticed visible damage to sampling equipment. During the investigation, the agency checked roughly 120,000 dust samples, submitted by 2,000 mines, for signs of tampering.
Martin said the government intends to propose a civil penalty of $1,000 for each of the violations cited and plans to pursue criminal investigations where there is evidence of tampering.
The investigation reveals that the coal companies cannot be trusted and that the Mine Safety and Health Administration should take over the dust sampling program, said Joe Main, director for health and safety for the United Mine Workers.
Several years ago, when the government was conducting hearings, coal miners complained that the dust regulations put the mine operators in charge of policing themselves. Because of the fear that coal companies would tamper with samples, the union asked that the government conduct the dust sampling program, Main said.
Over the past several years the union has seen its fear become reality, as several companies have been cited for violating the monitoring requirements, Main said. Manipulation of the dust sampling process has occurred on a major scale throughout the industry, he said.
On Jan. 17, Peabody Coal Co. pleaded guilty to charges it falsified dust samples submitted to the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Peabody, the nation's largest coal producer, agreed to pay a record $500,000 fine.
The case prompted a federal grand jury investigation into whether other companies were submitting fraudulent dust samples.
The sampling instruments required by federal regulations are carried by individual miners or attached to underground mining equipment. The dust samplers contain filters, which are removed and sent to government laboratories for analysis. A company is found in violation if the filters have collected over 2 micrograms of dust over an 8-hour period.
The companies are believed to either have collected samples away from the dusty areas of mines or to have blown the dust out of filters, which leaves a tell-tale white spot, before sending them off for analysis, Main said.
What worried her, Martin said, is the broad nature of the violations. Some samples may have been within the allowable limit yet they were still tampered with, she said. "It seems almost an addiction to cheat at some mines."
By tampering with the samples, coal companies have exposed miners to unkown levels of coal dust, Main said. The breathing of coal dust by miners leads to the disabling black lung disease. The companies have acted without regard to the health of their miners, Main said.
The public should be concerned about the law-breaking because the social consequences are fairly high, Main said. More cases of black lung strain health care providers in the coalfields, he said. And because the fund that pays for black lung benefits for miners is, itself, not healthy, the taxpayers will have to make up the difference when shortfalls occur, he said.
Today's announcement raises serious questions about whether self-regulation such as the dust-sampling process is a viable means to control workplace health and safety conditions, said J. Davitt McAteer, director of the Occupational Safety and Health Law Center in Washington.
Associated Press provided some information for this story.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on April 5, 1991 in the Evening edition.\ Correction
A story in Thursday's paper incorrectly reported the standard for coal dust in coal mines, because of a reporter's error. No miner may be exposed to more than 2 milligrams per cubic meter of air, not 2 micrograms as reported.
Memo: correction