Black Lung Disease Rates Skyrocket To Highest Levels Since 1970s

[kentuck]

<snip>
As it grapples with a resurgence of black lung in many areas, the Labor Department recently announced it is updating and tightening its black lung regulations for the mining industry. Most notably, the reforms will lower a mine's allowable level of coal dust from 2.0 milligrams per cubic meter of air to 1.5, a move meant to force operators to better ventilate their mines.

The rule changes will also overhaul how operators must monitor their dust levels. Under the new regulations, miners will be equipped with a personal dust monitor that provides real-time readings of a mine's coal dust level. Under the old system, miners wore personal dust pumps that sampled the air and were then sent to regulators for analysis.

For years and years, coal operators have been able to game the system by submitting fraudulent dust samples to regulators, making the air seem less dangerous than it really is. The new dust monitors will likely make it harder for companies to mislead regulators. But as one industry observer recently told HuffPost, so long as companies are tasked with monitoring themselves, "there will always be ways to cheat."



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/15/black-lung-disease-levels-letter_n_5824470.html

[leanforward]

1. Oh!

Surely, Shelly Moore Capito, our Congressional Representative, will back this rule change. To me, gaming the system, is similar to an abusive parent. It goes to the health of the child, or in this case it goes to the health of the miner. I'm sure she'll support this rule. NOT.

[Staph]

4. Will Shelley actually support this change in black lung policy?

Not a chance in Hades!

Will she go on the campaign trail and say that she will support it? Of course! In Capito's case, the apple doesn't fall far from the Arch Moore criminal tree.

(For those readers not familiar with West Virgnia senate candidate Shelley Moore Capito's father, former West Virginia governor Arch A. Moore Jr, here's the scoop from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_A._Moore,_Jr.):

Federal conviction

In 1990, after an extensive federal investigation, Moore pleaded guilty to five felonies. He agreed to plead guilty after he was told that federal investigators had taped him conspiring with his former campaign manager, John Leaberry, to obstruct the investigation into his activities. Moore pleaded guilty to an indictment that said he accepted illegal payments during his 1984 and 1988 election campaigns, extorted more than $573,000 from a Maben Energy Corporation, a coal company based in the town of Beckley, and obstructed the investigation. Moore served two years, eight months in federal prison in Alabama and Kentucky and four months of home confinement at his home in Glen Dale, Marshall County.[9]

After his guilty plea, Moore tried repeatedly to withdraw it. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rebuffed his attempts to withdraw his plea in April 1991, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused his arguments in October 1995. As of 2012, Moore continues to maintain his innocence.

[drray23]

2. very a propos

I am watching "the roosevelts" on pbs and they were talking about the great coal industry strike that theodore roosevelt broke by forcing the coal mine operators to listen to labor representatives.

He threatened to nationalize the industry if they did not negotiate. They yielded.

At that time 16 hours days and child labor, company towns, total disregard for health conditions.

This article shows that the pendulum has swung back towards business owners and if we let it continue they would have no compunction about going back to the robber barons days.

[Staph]

5. My 90 year old mom and I were watching The Roosevelts this evening.

She and I decided that we desperately need another TR -- someone who understands that the poor and rich need to have equal power in this country. Someone needs to take on the big banks and big corporations and the billionaires who think their votes count for more than anyone else's and . . . .

Of course, Theodore Roosevelt would never belong to today's Republican party. With their current attitude toward the environment and their support for the 1%, TR would be livid. The platform for the Bull Moose Party, during Roosevelt's unsuccessful campaign for the presidency in 1912, included (according to Wikipedia's entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Party_%28United_States,_1912%29):

The platform's main theme was reversing the domination of politics by business interests, which allegedly controlled the Republicans' and Democrats' parties, alike. The platform asserted that: To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.[12]

To that end, the platform called for

• Strict limits and disclosure requirements on political campaign contributions
  
• Registration of lobbyists
  
• Recording and publication of Congressional committee proceedings
  

In the social sphere the platform called for

• A National Health Service to include all existing government medical agencies.
  
• Social insurance, to provide for the elderly, the unemployed, and the disabled
  
• Limited injunctions in strikes
  
• A minimum wage law for women
  
• An eight hour workday
  
• A federal securities commission
  
• Farm relief
  
• Workers' compensation for work-related injuries
  
• An inheritance tax
  
• A Constitutional amendment to allow a Federal income tax
  

TR for President -- 2016!

[hunter]

3. Coal mining is killing the environment that supports us all.

Coal ought to be banned, for the health of the miners, and for the health of our earth.

Nobody should be mining coal.

Put these miners to work in industries superseding coal.

Until then, safety regulations ought to be very strongly enforced.

[pinboy3niner]

6. Brings to mind a song...

"The Bells of Rhymney" is a song written by folk singer Pete Seeger and Welsh poet Idris Davies. The lyrics to the song were drawn from Davies' poem "Bells of Rhymney", which was first published in his 1938 book, Gwalia Deserta. The poem, which follows the pattern of the nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons", was written about a coal mining disaster and the failure of the 1926 General Strike. In addition to Rhymney, the poem also refers to the bells of a number of other towns and cities in South Wales, including Merthyr, Rhondda, Blaina, Caerphilly, Neath, Swansea, Newport, Cardiff, and Wye. Seeger used the poem as lyrics for his song "The Bells of Rhymney" after discovering them in a book by Dylan Thomas. ....

Arguably the most famous rendition of the song is the version recorded by the American folk rock band The Byrds. ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bells_of_Rhymney

The Bells of Rhymney

Oh what will you give me?
Say the sad bells of Rhymney.
Is there hope for the future?
Cry the brown bells of Merthyr.
Who made the mine owner?
Say the black bells of Rhondda.
And who robbed the miner?
Cry the grim bells of Blaina.

They will plunder will-nilly,
Cry the bells of Caerphilly.
They have fangs, they have teeth,
Shout the loud bells of Neath.
Even God is uneasy,
Say the moist bells of Swansea.
And what will you give me?
Say the sad bells of Rhymney.

Throw the vandals in court,
Say the bells of Newport.
All will be well if, if, if,
Cry the green bells of Cardiff.
Why so worried, sisters why?
Sang the silver bells of Wye.
And what will you give me?
Say the sad bells of Rhymney?

Words from "Gwalia Deserta" by Idris Davies
Music by Pete Seeger
© 1959 & 1964 Ludlow Music, Inc.

[Marthe48]

7. Oldies radio stations ignore folk/protest hit songs

I haven't heard Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, any of the protest song hits of the 60's and 70's -- the ones that inspired the anti-war protests and other positive social change.