Mr. WILLIAMS of New Jersey, from the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, submitted the following

REPORT

together with

INDIVIDUAL VIEWS

[To accompany S. 2917]

The Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, having had under consideration legislation to improve the health and safety conditions of persons working in the coal mining industry of the United States, reports an original bill and recommends that it do pass.

Purpose of the Bill

The coal mining industry recognizes that "there can be no question that the health and safety of employees in the coal mining industry must be given first priority." This enlightened declaration was made of record by Mr. John Corcoran, chairman of the National Coal Association, in his appearance before the Department of the Interior's Coal Mine Safety Conference in December, 1968. The essence of the declaration was reaffirmed in the Senate hearings when the president of the National Coal Association, Mr. Stephen F. Dunn, testified that the coal mining industry "does not believe profits should be put ahead of the health and safety of mineworkers."

To achieve these admirable industrial goals calls for major changes throughout the coal mine industry for

While the coal mining industry has made giant strides in its ability to extract the natural resource coal from the depths of the earth, it has lagged behind other industries in protecting its most valuable resource-the miner.

So stated the Department of the Interior on March 3, 1969, in Senate hearings, in proposing the repeal of the current Coal Mine Safety

statute and the enactment of new comprehensive coal mine health and safety legislation.

The primary objective of this legislation is to bring the health and safety aspects of the coal mining industry into the modern industrial

age.

The purpose of this bill is to:

Improve the health and safety conditions and practices at underground coal mines and to provide protection in all other coal mines, including surface coal mines, not now covered by the Federal Coal Mine Safety Act as amended:

Provide authority for the Surgeon General to establish health standards for all coal mines and to study the health needs of all persons who work with coal:

Provide authority for the Department of the Interior to promulgate improved mandatory health and safety standards for all coal mines by regulation:

Provide improved means of enforcement in order to prevent accidents in all coal mines:

Provide a more extensive and accelerated research program in the field of coal mine health and safety:

Assist the States in their efforts to protect coal miners: and Establish a Coal Mine Health and Safety Research Trust Fund. The bill repeals the 1952 Federal Coal Mine Safety Act, as amended. The new Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act would continue the best features of the 1952 act while adding a number of new features designed to overcome the shortcomings of the act and improve upon some of the existing features of that act. The highlights of some of the new and improved features follow. It would

-Authorize the promulgation of mandatory health and safety standards for all coal mines;

-Establish a standard to control respirable dust in the atmosphere of underground coal mines for each miner and prevent the development of pneumoconiosis or black lung and provide a regular program of chest X-rays and medical examinations for the miners;

-Include health and safety protection for miners in surface or strip mines, as well as for underground miners;

-Require a minimum of 4 inspections per year with advance notice of such inspections prohibited;

-Require the reporting of all accidents, unintentional roof falls, and ignitions whether or not death or injury results:

-Provide for civil penalties against the operator for violation of health or safety standards and against the miner for willfully violating the standard prohibiting smoking or carrying of smoking materials underground;

-Provide expanded criminal penalties and injunctions to enforce various orders;

-Expand the coverage of the act to afford safety protection against the accidents which account for 90 percent of the fatal and nonfatal injuries in this industry in addition to the disastertype accidents;

-Expand the scope of imminent danger closing orders to cover any condition or practice that may cause immediately death or injury before abatement is possible;

-Expand and accelerate health and safety research authority and provide funds for such research;

-Require that inspectors be stationed full time at mines most likely to present explosion hazards;

Require the Secretary to provide operators with the assistance of persons knowledgeable in dust control;

-Streamline the procedures for review of closing orders; -Provide for the control of roof falls in the working faces where 70 percent of roof-fall fatalities occurred in the last 2 years, and require the adoption and approval of roof control plans; -Prohibit smoking and the use of open flames in all mines; -Provide improved methods of controlling methane through better ventilation, more frequent testing, use of bleeders, brattice cloth, and methane monitors, and improved methane control research;

-Provide improvements in rock dusting to prevent propagation of ignitions and explosions;

-Expand and modernize means and measures to prevent arcs and sparks, burns, and electrocutions from unsafe or improperly protected electrical equipment, power wires, and trailing cables: -Expand and improve present provisions on the use, storage, and transportation of explosives, on fire suppression, on preventing ignition and fires in welding;

-Require that each mine have an accurate and up-to-date detailed map of the mine:

-Provide that every underground mine furnish at a minimum two separate escapeways adequately ventilated and marked, one of which must be separated from haulage entries where many mine fires start;

-Require protection by the operator from accidental penetration of oil and gas wells during mining; and

-Provide for the installation of better communications to the sur

face, use of emergency shelters, and illumination of the mine. The health and safety of the miners, and the effect of the provisions of this bill on the economic well-being of this industry, including the demands for coal in this country, have been thoroughly considered during extensive hearings and the committee's deliberations on the bill.

History of Major Federal Coal Mine Legislation

The hazardous nature of mining was recognized at the Federal level as long ago as 1865, when a bill to create a Federal Mining Bureau was introduced in Congress. However, little was done until a series of serious coal-mine disasters, after the turn of the century, aroused public demand for Federal action to stop such excessive loss of life. As a result, an act of Congress established a Bureau of Mines in the Department of the Interior on July 1, 1910.

The Bureau was charged with making

*** diligent investigation of the methods of mining, espe-
cially in relation to the safety of miners, and the appliances
best adapted to prevent accidents, the possible improvement
of conditions under which mining operations are carried on,
the treatment of ores and other mineral substances, the use
of explosives and electricity, the prevention of accidents, and

other inquiries and technologic investigations pertinent to said industries. ***

Lack of inspection authority was a great shortcoming of the act. The act contained the specific denial of "any right or authority in connection with the inspection or supervision of mines *** in any State" on the part of any Bureau employee.

The act, though essentially hortatory, did constitute Federal recog nition of the need to attack the catastrophic hazards in the mineral industries.

Successful action to establish inspection authority started with the introduction of S. 2420 in the 76th Congress, May 16, 1939. Extensive hearings were held in 1939 with the bill subsequently passing the Senate early in 1940. The House Committee on Mines and Mining held hearings in 1940, but failed to report the bill.

Reintroduced in 1941 as H.R. 2082, the bill was quickly enacted by the House on March 13. The committee report (H. Rept. 168, 77th Cong., first sess.) said of the then existing situation:

Investigation reveals no common standard of safety among the States, no common regulations, and, in addition to this, a lack of uniform enforcement of such regulations as are in effect. The jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Mines is severely limited, and in fact it lacks authority to enter the underground workings without specific permission from the owners, and once inside, upon invitation only, it has no authority to publicize its findings or recommendations or improve or correct conditions either directly or indirectly.

In order to supplement the work of the State agencies, H.R. 2082, the bill under consideration, extends and enlarges the authority of the Federal Bureau of Mines. It is not regulatory in any sense. It merely authorizes the Bureau, through its representatives, to make inspections of the underground workings and publicize its findings and recommendations. These inspections may be made annually or when necessary, and are to be made in conjunction with the local State agencies so that there is no usurpation of the State authority.

Senate approval was obtained, and the measure, Public Law 49, 77th Congress, became known as title I of the Federal Coal Mine Safety Act.

Despite the authority to make "annual or necessary inspections and investigations," the Bureau was still greatly handicapped in that there was no provision for establishing safety standards for coal mines or for achieving compliance with the standards or recommendations of the Secretary.

During 1946 and 1947, when the Federal Government operated a substantial portion of the Nation's coal mines, an agreement was reached between Interior Secretary Krug and Mine Workers' President John L. Lewis, embodying a Federal Mine Safety Code. Except during the brief period of time during which the mines were operated by the Government, the Mine Safety Code has served only as a guideline to Federal inspectors. Compliance by operators is voluntary.

In 1947, Public Law 328, 80th Congress requested that coal operators and State mining agencies report the extent of compliance with the Bureau of Mines recommendations. Cooperation with the request to

report was obtained fully from 17 coal mining States, partially from two others, while seven failed to cooperate to any extent. Operators reported 33-percent compliance with the Bureau's recommendations while the act was in effect. There were no penalty sanctions, and the law lapsed after a year.

The death of 119 miners in an explosion at West Frankfort, Ill., late in December 1951, led to new legislation was enacted in 1952 as Public Law 552, 82d Congress.

The 1952 act, while improving the legislative machinery for achieving mine safety, once again left much to be desired. President Truman, when he signed the bill on July 16, 1952, commented:

This measure is a significant step in the direction of preventing the appalling toll of death and injury to miners in underground mines.

***Nevertheless, the legislation falls short of the recommendation I submitted to the Congress to meet the urgent problems in this field.

The President then cited these deficiencies in the act:

1. Coal mines in which less than 15 persons are regularly employed underground are exempted from compliance with any of the mine safety provisions regardless of whether a major disaster might be imminent.

2. The broad phase of accident prevention in general remains the responsibility of the States, despite the record to date indicating either the inability or unwillingness of the States to meet this responsibility.

3. The legislation contains several exemptions to the safety provisions particularly with regard to replacement of dangerous electrical equipment and faulty ventilation systems which have been the causes of most recent major disasters. * * * They are so worded that the unsafe conditions and practices could continue for years before the mines would be required to comply with the law.

4. The measure contains complex procedural provisions relating to inspections, appeals, and the postponing of orders which I believe will make it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for those charged with the administration of the act to carry out an effective enforcement program.

Despite these shortcomings, and others cited by President Truman, the 1952 act did make these contributions:

1. Compliance with the Mine Safety Code became mandatory in mines regularly employing 15 or more workers underground. These are called title II mines.

2. Inspectors were authorized to close title II mines and withdraw workers if conditions presented an imminent danger of accidents.

3. In the event of less serious but nonetheless hazardous conditions, inspectors were to report such violations to the operators. Failure to correct the situation within a "reasonable time" could also result in mine closings until the condition was corrected.