Blaa Blaa Blaa

The Insanity Continues


H U R R A Y for the politicians…they’re on the ball again today.

I feel safer already.

The TV cameras were rolling, and the moronic compassionate concerned sound bites were flowing like water:

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin urged the federal government on Tuesday to follow his state's lead and come up with new protections for coal miners.

"I never want to tell another child that I'm not sure if Daddy has enough air," Manchin said. "I don't want to tell another wife that we haven't found him yet but that we're still looking."

Hey Governor Joe, I have an answer to the problem of ensuring “daddy having enough air” in the future.

Why don’t the politicians like you just shut the hell up and stop sucking all of the air out of the room whenever there is a photo op.

Better yet, let’s just close down all of the coal mines, stop buying oil from foreign sources, and all move back into caves and get our heat and light from candles made from animal fat…no…wait a minute…PETA has a problem with that idea also.

Oops, I guess if we start living in caves we’ll have to follow federal and state mining regulations by default, won’t we?

Now let me see...where did I put my SCSR (Self Contained Self Rescuer)?

And another thing--where the heck did the name “Self Contained Self Rescuer” come from any way?

I smell government influence in there somewhere in the naming process.

If I were in charge of naming a device that you carry with you that supplies emergency oxygen while you’re working miles underground, I would probably call it something like “FRESH AIR” or “OH SHIT, I DON’T WANT TO DIE AIR.”

Maybe not...

Continuing reading along in the news story:

Deputy Labor Secretary Steven Law said federal officials were reviewing sweeping mine safety legislation Manchin pushed through the West Virginia Legislature on Monday. That legislation was triggered by the deaths of 14 miners in recent weeks at two West Virginia mines.

Another miner also was killed in a roof collapse at a Kentucky mine Jan. 10. Law said the Bush administration was moving "very expeditiously with our own review of any additional changes or provisions that we need to include through the regulatory process."

Law said the federal review included consideration of emergency safety rules that could be put in place quickly. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said immediate action should be taken by the mine agency to put extra breathing devices in the mines. "Now, we will do that by law if we have to," Rockefeller said.

You tell ‘em Jay…you legislative “studmuffin.” Get out your pointy legislative stick and give them all a good poking.

Federal law requires miners to carry oxygen packs that provide about an hour's worth of air. There is evidence that some of the 12 miners killed in the Jan. 2 Sago mine accident used their oxygen devices, yet it took rescuers more than 40 hours to bring the victims above ground.

The mine agency has just launched a review of the oxygen packs used by underground coal miners after previously withdrawing a Clinton-era proposal that would have studied the devices and possibly led to new rules governing their use.

The West Virginia legislation requires the stockpiling of breathing devices for trapped miners, better tracking of miners underground and faster emergency responses.

Ok, I‘ll try to forget the emotion here in this story for a moment, if I can, and do the math to find out what it would have taken to have saved the lives of those 12 miners killed in the January 2 accident.

12 miners x 40 hours x 1 hour of air per oxygen pack = 480 oxygen packs

That seems simple enough at first glance, but I’ve done a little checking and these things cost over $500 EACH.

We’re talking $ 250,0000 worth of oxygen packs—$22,500 per miner.

Next question...

Where are the politicians and government rocket scientists going to tell the mine owners to put their new quarter million dollar “Self Contained Self Rescuers”?

At the very end of the mine?

In the middle of the shaft?

How about lining the walls of the mine every 25 feet with a giant stockpile of SCSR’s?

The next thing you know the mine unions will be bitching because the mines have to lay off employees to offset the cost of the new SCSR's.

Another problem is that SCSR’s are inherently HIGHLY flammable, you know?

Some consist of small bottles of pure oxygen like SCUBA divers use. Other’s operate on the same principal as the oxygen canisters they use in airliners.

Remember that ValueJet DC-9 that caught fire and nose dived into the Everglades outside Miami back in the mid 1990’s. That fire and subsequent loss of life was caused when an oxygen canister ignited in a cargo hold under the cockpit and set some used tires on fire.

So won’t that be a wonderful solution to mine safety, filling mines with flammable (and potentially explosive) bottles of oxygen or canisters of oxygen producing chemicals positioned so that they are in convienant reach of every miner, every second of the workday.

The Government, under President Clinton, took a shot at studying the various models of SCSR’s that were on the market, and found that they all are not created equal. Some models barely deliver an hour’s worth of oxygen, while others will last beyond four hours if the wearer is at rest rather than running for their life or trying to dig themselves out of a cave-in.

Having worked heavy construction myself (but not in a mine), I guarantee you that the miners aren't wearing their SCSR's right now because everything you have to carry and strap on your body ends up being a pain in the ass while you're trying to do your job. I spent years wandering around jobsites with a hardhat, safety glasses, wearing steel toed boots and a full body safety harness, and let me tell you that it is a poor fashion statement at best and an actual encumberance to performing your work tasks at worse.

I actually feel sorry for the WV Governor because he is basically forced to jump on this stupid bandwagon by the MEDIA, and if he dared to utter facts and figures like I've been spouting over the past two days he would be crucified in print.

Ditto for the mine owners and officials.

I said this before, and I'll say it again:

MINING SAFETY IS AT A RECORD HIGH, WITH INJURIES AND DEATH AT A RECORD LOW.

We don't need further government meddling in the process.

It's just that simple...