One Hundred Years of Federal Mining Safety and Health Research

Public Health Service conducted a study of bituminous coal miners in Utah in 1942, and found a
low incidence of what was termed “anthracosilicosis” (3.2 percent). By 1949, as more studies
were conducted, it was becoming apparent that CWP was a major problem among bituminous
miners. Other limited confirmatory studies were conducted in 1957 and 1959 and provided
further evidence of a disease problem.
In 1963, the Public Health Service began an extensive prevalence study that showed 10 percent
of the active and 18 percent of the inactive miners had X-ray evidence of coal workers’
pneumoconiosis. In 1967 the Public Health Service BOSH established the Appalachian
Laboratory for Occupational Respiratory Diseases (ALFORD) on the campus of the West
Virginia University School of Medicine in Morgantown, where most subsequent Public Health
Service research on CWP would be conducted. Early research conducted at ALFORD included
medical evaluations in coal miners to develop better clinical methods for diagnosing CWP and
assessing the level of impairment caused by the disease. [Doyle 2009].
4.2 The USBM in the 1960s
By 1960, the mining research described in the Annual Progress Report of the Bureau of Mines
fell into three principal areas [USBM 1960]: bituminous coal extraction, explosives and
explosions, and health and safety. Under bituminous coal extraction, the report cited cooperation
with industry in trials of a German coal planer for longwall mining, investigation of the use of
coal augers in surface mines, high pressure water jets for coal extraction, and water infusion for
methane degasification. Explosives and explosions research clearly was aimed at the safety of
miners and other users of explosives. The most significant past accomplishment cited was the
assessment and publicizing of the hazardous use of black powder in coal mining and the
reduction in mine explosions resulting from its replacement by permissible explosives.
Other research areas cited in the report included:
• The practice of adding sodium chloride to coal mine explosives to reduce their ability to
ignite methane.
• Investigation of flammability characteristics and explosion hazards of a wide variety of
mineral, agricultural, and industrial dusts.
• Studies of coal dust transport, deposition, and explosibility, and methods for control of
the coal dust explosion hazard.
In the Bureau’s 1960 annual report [USBM, 1960], the following paragraph summarizes the
accomplishments of the Bureau in the area of health and safety research and testing:
These activities to promote safety and improve working environment throughout the
mineral industries have been of a long-range, continuing nature. During previous years ,
notable accomplishments have been: (1) Development and widespread adoption of roof
bolting for roof support in mines and tunnels, (2) development and application of new
and improved methods of roof control (other than roof bolting), (3) determination of
physiological action of a variety of gases and vapors, (4) determination of the occurrence,
behavior, composition, physiological effects, and control of mineral dusts, (5)
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