Clean energy jobs safer for workers

When Congress passed a massive bill to fund the government for next year, they included a provision that will delay or block funding for a Department of Labor proposal to reduce dangerous coal dust levels in our nation’s mines. Miners working under current dust conditions have been suffering increasing rates of sickness and death from black lung disease. Miners have one of the most dangerous jobs in America, as we’ve seen recently through the number of people killed in mining disasters. Less publicized are the miners suffering long, painful deaths from years of breathing in coal dust underground.

Black lung disease is something most people associate with mining coal 100 years ago, but it’s still killing people today. In 1969, Congress made eliminating black lung a national goal, with a law that required mine operators to limit exposure. The law greatly reduced black lung among the nation’s coal miners, but government scientists have found that black lung is on the rise again. Since 1997, black lung rates have doubled, and many cases of severe disease have been found among younger miners whose entire careers took place under the 1969 law’s dust limits.

To prevent black lung deaths, the U.S. Department of Labor has issued strict rules designed to clean the air coal miners breathe. Unfortunately, Congress just voted to suspend these lifesaving health rules. That is shameful. Moving away from using dirty, dangerous fuels such as coal means moving toward cleaner energy sources that are safer, healthier and smarter. As long as we continue to use coal, we ought to protect the people who work deep in the earth to keep our lights on, not fill their stockings — and lungs — with coal.

Dr. Robert Cohen

Medical director

National Coalition of Black Lung and Respiratory Disease Clinics

Chicago