Coal mine tragedies (in China and the US)

Statistics show that China’s coal mines are the deadliest in the world – with accidents killing 2,631 miners there last year. Therefore, it came as little surprise when 153 of them were trapped in a flooded mine two weeks ago. Miraculously, 115 have been rescued, but 33 remain unaccounted for (and must be presumed dead).

What was most noteworthy about this latest tragedy, however, was the righteous indignation it incited among some American mining experts.

For instance, I heard one of them on CNN asserting that Chinese authorities are so hell-bent on mining coal to fuel China’s booming economy that they couldn’t care any less about enforcing standards to ensure a safer work environment for miners. The implication being that American authorities put safety first by exerting far more rigorous oversight.

But, as I listened to him last week, this expert seemed completely oblivious to the fact that the US has its own record of mining tragedies, including one in Utah in 1984 that killed 27 and another in West Virginia in 2006 that killed 12.

Therefore, the tragic irony was not lost on me when news broke on Monday that tragedy had befallen miners in West Virginia … again. Specifically, there was a methane gas explosion that killed 25 and trapped 4 (who must be presumed dead despite ongoing efforts to “rescue” them). Even worse, reports are that the owner of this mine, Massey Energy Co., was cited over 600 times over the last 18 months for “unwarranted failure to comply with safety standards.”

This clearly makes a mockery of any claim about providing a safe work environment for American miners. Moreover, it exposes the mining industry’s dirty little secret; namely, that Massey and other owners rake in so much from cutting corners that revenues from one day’s worth of extracted coal can literally pay off fines from thousands of safety citations.

Not to mention their cynical practice of retaining lawyers to contest these citations, which results in the vast majority of them never even being paid.

My father was a coal miner in West Virginia in the 1930s. He told me of running out of a coal mine as fine silty dust trailed behind him. It appears mining is NO safer now than it was then! (Member of a mining family commenting on ABC’s Good Morning America, abc.com, April 6, 2010)

There’s no denying that China’s deadly record stems from carelessly putting it’s miners at risk to grow and sustain its superpower economy. But, in addition to demonstrating the inherent dangers of mining, this latest tragedy in the US also confirms that the motto of “profits over safety” applies as much here as it does in China.

It should be noted, however, that miners in America receive high pay for the high risks they assume. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for their counterparts in china.