One Hundred Years of Federal Mining Safety and Health Research

The 1969 Coal Act was the first federal law to address both the health and safety of miners. The
law required mine operators to take accurate samples of respirable dust in underground coal
mines beginning June 30, 1970. Dust levels could be no higher than 3.0 mg of respirable dust
per cubic meter, and the law required reductions to 2.0 mg per cubic meter within 3 years. The
U.S. Bureau of Mines and the Bureau of Occupational Safety and Health (BOSH) of the
Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) jointly issued regulations specifying the
procedures to be used for sampling for respirable dust in coal mines. BOSH and HEW were
predecessors of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS). By the end of 1970, the Bureau had issued 714 violation
notices to coal mine operators for excessive dust levels, and 1,589 notices for failure to initiate
dust sampling programs.
The 1969 Coal Act also mandated a chest x-ray screening and surveillance program for coal
workers’ pneumoconiosis among underground miners, to be administered by HEW. The
program was provided chest x-rays to all new underground coal miners and to all underground
coal miners at specified intervals afterward. Miners with evidence of CWP were to be provided
with enhanced dust sampling and/or transfer from high-dust to low-dust jobs in the mine.
The responsibility for this program was assigned to the ALFORD facility in Morgantown, WV.
ALFORD scientists established an ongoing radiographic screening and surveillance program for
all underground coal miners in the U.S. that continues to the current time. The 1969 Coal Act
also mandated that epidemiological research be conducted to identify and define positive factors
involved in occupational diseases of miners, provide information on the incidence and
prevalence of pneumoconiosis and other respiratory ailments of miners, and improve mandatory
health standards.
Over the next several decades, ALFORD scientists conducted a long-term, medicalenvironmental
study of 5,000 coal miners in over 30 mines throughout the country. This study,
the National Study of Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis, was done in cooperation with the Bureau
and was designed to obtain estimates of the number of miners with CWP, and to help develop a
recommended standard for respirable coal mine dust [Doyle 2009].
The 1969 Coal Act also led the Bureau to reorganize in light of its increased responsibilities in
mine health and safety. The Bureau was restructured under two deputy directors. A Deputy
Director for Health and Safety with three Assistant Directors was responsible for the regulatory
enforcement program of the Bureau. The three Assistant Directors oversaw coal mine health and
safety, metal and nonmetal mine health and safety, and education and training.
The rest of the Bureau was placed under a second Deputy Director for Mineral Resources and
Environmental Development, who had four assistant Directors. The responsibility for all mining
health and safety research was placed under the Assistant Director for Mining. The Bureau’s
four mining research centers at Pittsburgh, Denver, Spokane, and Twin Cities were placed under
the Assistant Director for Mining.
After the 1969 Coal Act, funding for coal mine health and safety research was greatly increased
to $22.3 million ($119 million in current 2009 dollars) for fiscal year 1971. Health and safety
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