Coal Miner’s Lawsuit Hopes to Bring Stricter Regulations To Mine Safety

Coal Miner's Lawsuit Hopes to Bring Stricter Regulations To Mine Safety

In an effort to help prevent black lung disease in coal miners, an eastern Kentucky coal miner filed a lawsuit against the Mine Safety and Health Administration and the Secretary of Labor.

The lawsuit was filed in an effort to force higher health protective standards for those individuals working in the coal mines. This is not the first such case in which workers have taken legal action to attempt to force safety agencies to have higher standards.

In the recent case, Scott Howard, an underground coal miner, had his attorneys present three points for argument.

The brief details these points including discussion of the Mine Act, which requires the Secretary of Labor to insist upon health standards that protect the health of workers. In addition, Mr. Scott has a right to ask for higher standards, as there is no other viable means to pursue this other than mandamus (formal order from a higher court to command this action).

Due to the "Secretary's intolerable failure to address the harm to miners caused by excessive respirable dust." Mr. Scott feels the mandamus is the logical next step.

The brief also describes in lengthy wording the lack of action of MSHA to reduce the respirable coal dust levels when it was recommended to do so in 1995. Statements from previous court cases were also introduced that described OSHA's lack of action to protect worker's health.

‘...we understand, because we have seen it happen time and time again, that action Congress has ordered for the protection of public health all too easily becomes hostage to bureaucratic recalcitrance, factional infighting, and special interest politics. At some point, we must lean forward from the bench to let an agency know, in no uncertain terms, that enough is enough.' (Public Citizen v. Brock, 1987)

January 20, 2009 has been set as the date for the rebuttal from the Secretary of Labor.

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