Preventable Return of a Scourge
Here's an idea for creating jobs in Appalachia: Hire ten thousand mine inspectors to stop coal operators from murdering miners.
From the AP:
Black lung diagnoses have doubled in the last decade, and a new investigation blames a combination of factors, including operators who cheat the system and lax enforcement by regulators.
Experts have warned of the resurgence since 1995, but an investigation by National Public Radio, the Center for Public Integrity and the Charleston Gazette concludes that all the systems designed to protect coal miners have failed. That includes federal lawmakers, who haven't passed regulations to toughen 1969 standards for coal dust.
Read the whole thing.
Then read Erik Loomis:
Despite the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, which was groundbreaking workplace safety legislation, not only have coal miners been exposed to insane amounts of coal dust, but federal regulators and the coal industry have known about this for 20 years.
SNIP
In any case, if the goal of industry is to return the United States to the Gilded Age, killing coal miners with black lung is a pretty good way to do it.
Don't miss Ken Ward at Coal Tattoo.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment