Category Archive for "Mine Safety"

Part 2 of the Center for Public Integrity’s remarkable expose on the black lung benefits process, “Breathless and Burdened,” is out this morning. And as the headline explains, it focuses on the medical unit at Johns Hopkins University which — in its work for coal companies — rarely finds black lung disease, helping the industry to defeat miners’ claims for federal benefits.

Investigative reporter Chris Hamby writes:

The Johns Hopkins University often receives attention for its medical discoveries and well-regarded school of public health, and its hospital recently was ranked the nation’s best by U.S. News and World Report.

What has remained in the shadows is the work of a small unit of radiologists who are professors at the medical school and physicians at the hospital. For 40 years, these doctors have been perhaps the most sought-after and prolific readers of chest films on behalf of coal companies seeking to defeat miners’ claims.

His story continues:

Their reports — seemingly ubiquitous and almost unwaveringly negative for black lung — have appeared in the cases of thousands of miners, and the doctors’ credentials, combined with the prestigious Johns Hopkins imprimatur, carry great weight. Their opinions often negate or outweigh whatever positive interpretations a miner can produce.

For the credibility that comes with these readings, which the doctors perform as part of their official duties at Johns Hopkins, coal companies are willing to pay a premium. For an X-ray reading, the university charges up to 10 times the rate miners typically pay their physicians.

Yet as part of its year-long investigation, the Center for Public Integrity said it found “strong evidence” that the deference the system gives to Johns Hopkins doctors “has contributed to unjust denials of miners’ claims.” Some of their evidence, especially regarding the top Hopkins’ doctor, Dr. Paul Wheeler:

— In the more than 1,500 cases decided since 2000 in which Wheeler read at least one X-ray, he never once found the severe form of the disease, complicated coal workers’ pneumoconiosis. Other doctors looking at the same X-rays found this advanced stage of the disease in 390 of these cases.

— Where other doctors saw black lung, Wheeler often saw evidence of another disease, most commonly tuberculosis or histoplasmosis — an illness caused by a fungus in bird and bat droppings. This was particularly true in cases involving the most serious form of the disease. In two-thirds of cases in which other doctors found complicated black lung, Wheeler attributed the masses in miners’ lungs to TB, the fungal infection or a similar disease.

— The criteria Wheeler applies when reading X-rays are at odds with positions taken by government research agencies, textbooks, peer-reviewed scientific literature and the opinions of many doctors who specialize in detecting the disease, including the chair of the American College of Radiology’s task force on black lung.

— Biopsies or autopsies repeatedly have proven Wheeler wrong. Though Wheeler suggests miners undergo biopsies — surgical procedures to remove a piece of the lung for examination — to prove their cases, such evidence is not required by law, is not considered necessary in most cases and can be medically risky. Still, in more than 100 cases decided since 2000 in which Wheeler offered negative readings, biopsies or autopsies provided undisputed evidence of black lung.

Caitlin O’Dell and her son, Andrew, made a surprise visit to the state mine safety board meeting to lobby for a new proximity device rule.

On Thursday morning, members of the West Virginia Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety were settling in for a monthly meeting. They gathered in a conference room at the Days Hotel in Flatwoods. Hot coffee and pastries were provided.

Out in the hall, a baby was crying. Someone got up and closed the door, so the infant wouldn’t disturb the board as members discussed whether West Virginia’s coal mines should be required to install “proximity detection” systems that safety experts say can protect underground miners from being crushed or pinned by continuous mining machines, scoops and shuttle cars.

At these meetings, board members don’t have nameplates. They don’t go around the table and introduce themselves. But they tell audience members to state their name and who they represent.

At this particular meeting, there was a surprise guest.

“My name is Caitlin O’Dell,” the young woman told board members. “I’m the widow in one of the fatality cases that’s on your agenda today.”

The board’s six members are seasoned coal industry officials and United Mine Workers representatives. They’ve known and met many families of miners who have died on the job. But in this context — at the meeting where they help decide what protections West Virginia will give its miners — it’s pretty unusual for board members to have to face a real live family member.

You might think such a confrontation would prompt something different out of the board, something more than the inaction that we’ve seen for many months on important issues facing board members. If you thought that, you’d be wrong. Just check out our story in the Gazette, headlined Despite widow’s plea, board rejects ‘proximity’ device rules. As we explained:

Board members expressed their sympathies to Mrs. O’Dell. They admired her 9-month-old son, and they thanked her for coming to “put a face” on the issue. Then, the board’s three industry representatives voted to block two different motions from their United Mine Workers counterparts to move forward with “proximity detection” rules.

Caitlin O’Dell sure tried. She told her story to the board. And as you probably guessed, and as we all learned later in the meeting, the baby that was crying in the hall was her son. Eventually, she brought him in so the board members could meet him, too. As we detailed in today’s story:

Before they voted on a rule to require “proximity detection” equipment in underground coal mines, Caitlin O’Dell wanted to introduce members of the state Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety to her son.

Andrew O’Dell never got to meet his father. He was born last Dec. 21, three weeks after Steven O’Dell was crushed to death by a maintenance “scoop” vehicle in the Alpha Natural Resources coal mine where he worked.

Caitlin O’Dell came to Flatwoods to urge mine safety board members to require all of the state’s underground coal operations to install systems that would shut off mining equipment when it gets too close to workers. She believes such a system would have saved her husband’s life, and could spare other families the pain hers has suffered.

“I’m here to ask you to stop history from repeating itself,” Caitlin O’Dell told board members. “You have an opportunity today to change history for the next family. It’s too late for mine.”

But none of that was enough for board members to act on a proposal that, basically, has been on the table for at least five years, since a team of top West Virginia mine inspectors recommended the state adopt a rule to require all coal mines to install proximity devices on mobile underground mining equipment.