Complaints lacking merit will be dismissed. The Real Face:

Although MSHA is intended to function as a watchdog body to keep vigil on the implementation of the federal Mine Safety and Health Act, 1977, through prohibiting companies from dismissing and harassing poor miners who deny working in unsafe working conditions or report safety conditions, it has been widely reported in the sections of the press that MSH is juggling with the statistics of miners death. It has devised its own day of reporting or otherwise about the number of the death of miners while on duty. By applying its discretion, MSHA took into account death of three coal miners and left out one death case from the list on Dec.30. Although two of the deaths happened on March 12 and December 2, however, they did not merit being chargeable till the end of the year as MSHA at first place denied to regard them as mine related.

The work in question, timer clearing in preparation of the mine site, had all along considered as connected with mining in the earlier years. In this vein, two MSHA staff, of late admitted that the body was trying to modify a mining connected death. They assert that amendment of the definition will put several deaths outside the purview of mine related deaths and this in turn will show a healthier picture of the mine related deaths. What was concerning that MSHA did not take into account the incident that happened in October, while a miner was struck by a 10-foot long pipe while working on the instrument in a West Virginia underground mine, as reported in Mine Safety and Health News. MSHA posted in its website about the cause of the death due to 'natural causes' and the circumstances leading to the death of the employee has been taken out of the website. In the meantime, the death of Brain Castle is awaiting inclusion in the MSHA's figures.

In yet another case Castle, Mystic Energy Inc., mine employee, lost his life on July 26 in the mine premises when his vehicle dashed with a coal truck on a company haul road. MSHA has failed to take cognizance of the accident and has not termed it as 'chargeable'. Even though the policy of MSHA is unequivocal as regards workers/miners who lose their lives on the premises of the mines, the death of that worker is chargeable. Within the ambit of the definition of worker is included not just mine employees, but even salesmen, delivery people or others with business interests at the mine site. Nevertheless, the details of the Castle's accident are missing from MSHA's website. The onsite investigators at the regional level perform a demanding and strenuous task. However, according to the accident investigation handbook of the agency, the task of resolving issues relating to chargeability lie with the officials of the agency who generally are not present at the site of the accident. Therefore the ultimate decision regarding the inclusion or otherwise is made at the MSHA headquarters in Arlintgton.

According to official figures, 28 coal-mine deaths happened during 2004, out of which 6 took place in Kentucky. None of the figure is an all-time low. But the manner and what...

Although following the arrival of final figure that disclosed a different story, there was a triumph on the public relations front. An editorial in a separate paper pointed to last year's all time low coal mine death figures. It is an accepted fact that coalmining is not rendered safer by newspaper headlines. Nevertheless, precise reporting of injuries related to mining activities is important to the persistent enhancement in the occupational safety in the mines of the country.