The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) began outlining its agenda for protecting workers with the announcement of a comprehensive plan to end black lung disease and the publication of its regulatory plan. MSHA had been headed by acting administrators during the last years of the Bush administration and has been slow to address many safety issues after a series of mine accidents and increased incidence of debilitating disease.

On Dec. 3, MSHA announced in a news release a "comprehensive strategy to end new cases of black lung among the nation's coal miners." Black lung and related diseases have been on the rise, according to several reports and studies conducted earlier this decade. According to the release, "over 10,000 miners have died from black lung over the last decade. The federal government has paid out over $44 billion in compensation for miners totally disabled by black lung since 1970."

In announcing the black lung plan in Beckley, WV, MSHA head Joseph A. Main indicated there was widespread support for the initiative among mining associations and unions. The plan has several components. For example,

• MSHA will hold four informational meetings in December in mining communities (including Main's appearance in Beckley).
• An educational "End Black Lung" webpage provides information on dust-related topics and will be the repository for future information on the plan and MSHA's activities.
• MSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) will hold a series of one-day regional workshops to bring together experts on the best practices to control coal dust. The first workshop was in November, and the others are scheduled throughout 2010.
• During the week of Dec. 7, inspectors will focus on the quality of dust-suppression plans and training by industry personnel about the risks of black lung and silicosis, a disease caused by exposure to silica dust in mines.

In addition to the black lung prevention plan, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued its regulatory plan, part of the semiannual Unified Agenda, a collection of agencies' planned regulatory and deregulatory actions. MSHA has several proposed and final actions included in DOL's agenda.

Working with NIOSH, MSHA issued a proposed rule in January to address the requirements for personal dust monitors. The agencies plan to complete the rule by April 2010, allowing for the approval of continuous personal dust monitors. These monitors represent new technology to measure miners’ exposure to respirable dust. This rule is part of the black lung prevention plan.

MSHA is working with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop a proposed rule to regulate exposure to silica in order to combat silicosis, another irreversible but preventable disease. According to the plan, "[t]o assure consistency within the Department, MSHA intends to use OSHA’s work on the health effects of occupational exposure to silica and OSHA’s risk assessment, adapting it as necessary for the mining industry." The proposed rule will not be issued until April 2011, however.

Another action that is likely to cause some consternation among those concerned with miners' health protection is the call to reduce the exposure of miners to respirable dust without necessarily reducing the personal exposure limit, the legal limit for exposure to coal dust. According to a Dec. 7 Charleston Gazette article, MSHA's plans to reduce exposure could include verifying the effectiveness of a coal company's dust control plan and/or changing the unit of measurement for exposure to a shift average instead of an average based on specific samples, as is currently the method for determining exposure.

According to a summary of MSHA's regulatory agenda by Mine Safety and Health News (subscription required), recent audits conducted by the agency indicated that there were problems with some dust prevention plans and implementation. Correcting these problems could result in better enforcement of the current standards, Main argued at the Beckley appearance, implying that kind of corrective action could replace reducing the exposure limit.

According to the Gazette, the current exposure limit is 2.0 milligrams per cubic meter and has been the legal limit since 1972. Should MSHA ultimately choose to use other approaches to limiting exposure without reducing the exposure limit, the agency will be ignoring years of scientific evidence that calls for reducing the limit, according to Dr. Celeste Monforton of George Washington University's school of public health.

On one hand, MSHA's agenda provides some hope that long-delayed worker protections will finally be addressed by an agency more focused in recent years on protecting mining companies. On the other hand, whether because of scant resources or political calculations, actions on a range of safety issues could still be years away.