Shared wisdom: mining experts weigh in during international safety conference.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: MINING - Conference news

Black lung disease has been listed as the cause, or a contributing factor, in 76,000 deaths in the United States since 1968.

Despite more than 40 years working in the American coal-mining industry, that number still shocked Joe Main when he was appointed as the assistant secretary of labor for Mine Safety and Health in 2009.

From that point, he and his team have worked diligently to improve working conditions, champion workers' rights, and liaise with mining companies to make mining in the U.S. a safer and healthier occupation.

"We knew that miners needed to have a place in mine safety and we launched a number of efforts to improve both education of miners on their rights and to enforce their rights they had under the Mine Act," said Main, speaking at the 36th International Conference of Safety in Mines Research Institutes.

Held Oct. 25 to 27 in Sudbury, the conference welcomed close to 200 delegates from around the world, who arrived for three days of workshops and lectures.

In his presentation, Main shared the challenges and successes his organization has experienced while trying to effect change in the industry. It started by identifying and retooling the regulations that "would significantly affect the improvement of the miners' safety and health."

The group cracked down on chronic violators, using data to track their violations, and beefed up training for workers.

"We actually issued, for the first time, a handbook for miner representatives on their rights under the Mine Act," Main said. "So, not only the miners, but those who represent miners, would have a clear picture of the rights as they had to enforce the law."

The work has paid off: the number of chronic violators has fallen from 51 to one; the number of violations of the most serious infractions has dropped by 40 per cent; and the U.S. documented 16 deaths in coal mining in 2014, the lowest number of deaths recorded in the history of U.S. coal mining.

The organization is now introducing technology to further enhance workers' health and safety: in 2016 it will introduce a device for continuous personal dust monitoring, which will combat black lung disease.

"It is a remarkable tool that's going to, for the first time, allow miners during the shift to see how much dust they're exposed to as the shift goes on," Main said. "It's a real-time monitor that's going to have a major impact in ending this disease."

Consultant Jim Joy, of Jim Joy & Associates Pty, said much of the problem...