Re: Mine Safety Subordinated to Mining Company Interests


>
> It only takes one serious mine incident to cause serious financial loss
> for mining companies, yet companies like this one continue to receive
> violation after violation with few if any repercussions. The only way
> something like a rebreather would ever be used is if it is mandated by
> MSHA, and they've had their teeth cropped by the Bush administration, who
> appointed mining insiders to the regulatory agency. It's like the cops
> and the robbers joining forces against the robbers' victims.

You ALL win the "Emily Latilla" Award for the month, and collectively need
to get out a little more! Oxygen-supplied re-breathing self-rescue
apparatus has been FEDERALLY MANDATED in US coal mines for over 20 YEARS!
So please quit getting your shorts in a bunch!

The men involved had them and used them (which is why one man survived!).
They last 36 hours and can't be made to last any longer and still be
portable enough to be of any practical use....it took 44 hours to get to the
men....YOU do the math!

Second, MSHA is a government agency where performance evaluations are based
on finding violations and even a moron that has passed his/her Civil Service
exam can be promoted. Two to three hundred recorded violations means
absolutely NOTHING, and can include biggies like not having enough soap in
the washroom (no joke!). In many cases, we've fought MSHA, and racked up
hundreds of "violations" as a result. In one specific case, MSHA got men
killed. The "Friendly Neighborhood MSHA Inspector" insisted that we use a
technique that was proven to be counter-productive called "Rib-Strapping",
where roof-support pillars were drilled and "reinforced" with roof bolts and
metal strapping. Research had proven that rib-strapping weakened the rib
FAR more than it strengthened it. We fought MSHA on it for 3 years, racked
up hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and hundreds of "violations" in
the process. Finally, with our legal remedies exhausted and under strenuous
protest, we bagan the MSHA impossed rib-strapping. On the 4th rib we were
strapping, the rib "rolled", as we predicted, and killed 4 men! MSHA, in
typical government fashion, took NO responsibility for the accident, and
denied they had anything to do with it in spite of a pallet-full of
documentation to the contrary......vox populi, vox dei!

At least "insiders" know how to safely run a mine....something MSHA has
repeatedly proven they cannot! Coal mining is INHERENTLY dangerous, ***
still happens, and men die because of it....get over it!

John


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