Released Wednesday, Oct. 28, 1998

Technology Key in Plan to End Black Lung
Device to Monitor Coal Mine Dust Gets More Underground Testing

The Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and the National Institutes for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have enlisted the support of several U. S. mining companies to continue tests of a newly-developed monitor that measures concentrations of harmful respirable coal mine dust to which working coal miners are exposed.

Nine coal mining companies have agreed to install the innovative monitoring device -- the machine-mounted continuous respirable dust monitor -- in their mines. The monitors will reveal when dust concentrations reach levels that require instituting controls to lower respirable dust concentrations in the mining atmosphere. Results could prevent miners from coal mine dust overexposure and prevent black lung disease.

"We have devoted considerable effort to eradicate black lung disease," said Davitt McAteer, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, " and we believe this phase of Federal government and private industry cooperation to test these monitors will get us much closer to our goal. While the monitor by itself is not the complete answer," McAteer explained, "it is another step that keeps us aimed at achieving our targeted goal of ending black lung disease -- now and forever!"

Here's how it works: a sensor in the continuous monitor measures the dust level concentrations which is shown on a "real-time" display panel during a work shift as well as an end-of-shift measurement. Real-time readouts of high dust levels will allow mine operators to adjust methods to control dust and prevent miners from overexposure. The readouts will also enable miners to understand what levels of dust to which they are currently being exposed.

A production model of the monitor was placed in a Consolidation Coal Co. mine in West Virginia for a month of testing to examine how stable and rugged it works in an underground environment. Another unit installed in a Bell County Coal Company mine in Middlesboro, Ky., evaluated how well the unit actually measured respirable coal mine dust.

"This testing process gives us an excellent opportunity to gather important information about the operation of the monitors in underground coal mines," McAteer explained, "so we can determine what adjustments need to be made."

Two more of the machine-mounted continuous monitors will actually "go to work" soon in an eight-week test to measure coal mine dust. They will be placed in Sun Coal Company's Shamrock Mine near Warbranch, Ky., and Lodestar Energy Inc.'s Baker Mine in Dixon, Ky. "This monitor could prove to be a revolutionary technological development," McAteer said. "The companies that are cooperating and participating in these tests are to be highly commended. Their cooperation is in the best traditions of government and business partnerships."

McAteer said cooperative agreements with other mining companies will ensure that ample and complete testing will be conducted over time in a variety of underground coal mine environments. Testing will allow for a complete, thorough evaluation of the monitor in the work place prior to its eventual mass production and widespread use in the mining industry.