Huffington Post: What Killed the Miners? Profits Over Safety?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/who-killed-the-miners-pro_b_526602.html


Jeff Biggers

Author, "Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland"
Posted: April 6, 2010 08:04 AM

All coal mining safety laws have been written in miners' blood.

My grandfather, who barely survived an explosion in a coal mine in southern Illinois, taught me this phrase. He also taught me about the 150-year-old battle in the coalfields over reckless production at the cost of responsible safety measures.

As our prayers and condolences go out to the many coal mining families in Raleigh County, West Virginia, I think about the needless safety violations and subsequent disasters that have taken place over the past century.

Over 104,000 Americans and immigrants have died in our coal mines. According to one inspector, many, if not a majority of those "accidents" should not be considered mishaps, but acts of negligent homicide.

As a coal miner's widow from Raleigh County, West Virginia told me on the phone last night, every time she sees a miner just off his shift, draped in coal dust, standing at the convenience market, she knows that mine is rife with violations.

Three coal miners still die daily from black lung disease -- one of the most flagrant safety issues and scandals overlooked in our nation.

FULL story at link.

[Fire1]

1. No union is the problem. n/t

[Bobbieo]

2. Profits over safety - Oh, so true!!! Which is why I am so against opening mines to uranuium

mining, again. The radioactive waste still has not been cleaned up.