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WASHINGTON, DC -- The Bush Administration has moved to delay the implementation of a federal regulation that would reduce mine workers’ risk of getting cancer or heart disease from diesel fumes. The final phase-in of the regulation was meant to take effect tomorrow, but the Administration has delayed it by four months while it considers delaying it by five years, until 2011.
Citing the greatly increased risk of disease associated with diesel fumes, Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao late yesterday urging her to stop delaying the full implementation of the regulation, and instead implement it immediately.
Workers in underground metal and nonmetal mines – such as salt, limestone, gold, and silver mines – often use diesel-powered equipment that emits fumes containing fine particles known as “diesel particulate matter.” Researchers have concluded that exposure to these particles in the average metal or nonmetal mine over an eight-hour period can be anywhere from 27 to 162 times the level of exposure on the streets of Los Angeles over a one-year period. Research has also shown – overwhelmingly – that such exposure to diesel particulate matter can greatly increase the risk of a range of illnesses, from headaches to cancer and heart disease.
Near the end of its second term, the Clinton Administration had finalized regulations that included a critical provision to help reduce mine workers’ exposure to diesel particulate matter inside metal and nonmetal mines. The regulations, adopted in 2001, had a five-year phase-in, providing an interim exposure limit from 2002 to 2005 and a stronger final exposure limit to take effect in January 2006. The full implementation of these limits has been racked by delays. The interim rule took effect in 2003, after a one year delay.
The final phase-in, providing mines with exposure limits on par with those experienced by other workers, was not set to take effect until tomorrow, January 20, 2006, in order to give the industry ample time to prepare for it. But in September 2005, the Bush Administration placed a notice into the Federal Register (which tracks proposed federal regulations) that it proposed to delay implementation of the exposure provision until 2011. In order to consider the proposed five-year delay, the Bush Administration also chose to delay the January 20, 2006, effective date by four months.
“That’s four more months – and possibly five more years – of miners inhaling toxic fumes that they needn’t be inhaling. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration and mining industry lobbyists don’t seem to mind the wait,” said Representative George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee and one of the lawmakers who wrote to Chao yesterday. “The Sago Mine tragedy highlighted the fact that much more can and should be done to keep mine workers safe, from working to prevent explosions to reducing workers’ risk of getting sick.”
“High levels of diesel fumes can sicken and kill workers who are exposed to them. The Clinton Administration’s plan would have reduced workers’ exposure without adding overly onerous burdens on the mining industry, but now the Bush Administration has undercut them. Time and time again, the Administration has moved to weaken and delay the full implementation of these rules, putting the interests of its corporate allies ahead of the health and safety of workers. That is shameful, and for the well-being of American mine workers, the Administration should implement these protections right away, tomorrow, as the law had required,” said Miller.
Representative Major Owens (D-NY), the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a member of the Education and the Workforce Committee, also signed the letter to Chao.
According to Celeste Monforton, a researcher at George Washington University who studies mine safety issues, there are 18,000 miners working in underground metal and nonmetal mines in the U.S. Monforton has authored a forthcoming paper for the American Journal of Public Health detailing how the diesel particulate matter rule has been delayed and undermined by certain mining interests and their lobbyists.
The eight states with the highest number of underground metal and nonmetal mines are Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
The full text of the letter to Chao is below.
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January 18, 2006
The Honorable Elaine Chao
Secretary
US Department of Labor
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20210
RE: Diesel Particulate Matter
Dear Secretary Chao:
As Members of Congress and Ranking Members of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, we are writing to you directly to express our great concern with the continued efforts of your Department to delay and weaken the health standard protecting metal and nonmetal miners from cancer and other adverse health effects associated with exposure to diesel particulate matter (dpm). A key exposure limit to protect miners had been scheduled to go into effect this Friday, January 20, 2006, following a five-year phase-in. Yet, we understand that you have proposed to delay implementation of this requirement for an additional five years, until 2011.
For some years now, it has been clear that the diesel-powered equipment used in many mining operations emits vast quantities of a fine particulate matter (known as diesel particulate matter, or dpm) into the confined spaces in which underground miners labor. The scientific community recognizes that significant exposures to such fine particulates are associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, heart disease and many other serious health problems. In fact, based on this evidence, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken numerous actions in recent years to deal with excessive public exposures to such particles. While the EPA has acted, even if weakly, the Department of Labor has stalled.
Miners in underground metal and nonmetal mines remain exposed to such high concentrations of these harmful particles that they face a significant risk of death or serious disease. For your reference, we attach a chart on dpm exposures for various workers. As you can see, miners experience exposures dramatically higher than any other at-risk worker. This chart was published by the Department – in 2001. Indeed, miners today are dying from conditions that are known to be associated with such exposures. Those who continue to work are only too aware of the ravages that occupational diseases have taken on those who came before.
In January 2001, after many years of study and rulemaking, the Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) issued rules to limit such harmful exposures. The rules were not onerous. The rules did not attempt to fully eliminate the risks to miners; only to reduce miner exposures to the levels experienced by other workers exposed to diesel emissions. The agency set a final limit on exposure which, according to overwhelming evidence, was feasible for the industry to achieve. Moreover, that limit was only scheduled to go into effect this month, on January 20, following a 5-year phase-in.
Since it took office, however, this Administration has taken numerous actions to thwart implementation of this rule. Various provisions were delayed time and again. Important requirements were amended or eliminated. Most recently, in September of 2005, the Department of Labor formally proposed that the industry receive yet another five years to comply with the final exposure limit. Moreover, the Department has stated that even further rulemaking will be required before the final exposure limit can be implemented.
There has been an intensive campaign by the metal and nonmetal mining industry to delay and weaken this rule. It is unfortunate that the Department's actions since 2001 have been guided by the unsubstantiated assertions of the industry rather than the extensive rulemaking record. That record continues to demonstrate that it is feasible for the industry to comply with the existing final exposure limit. Further delays and changes to weaken the rule are unwarranted.
The diesel particulate rule is desperately needed to protect miners from serious hazards to their health. We urge you to let the 2001 rule go into effect without further delay, and to take actions to strengthen the protections it affords to underground metal and nonmetal workers. We ask that a copy of this letter be included in MSHA's rulemaking docket.
Sincerely,
GEORGE MILLER
Senior Democrat
Committee on Education and the Workforce
MAJOR OWENS
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Workforce Protections
DENNIS KUCINICH
Member of Congress
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