Click on over to Healthcare Economist, where Jason Shafrin has posted Health Wonk Review to the “Rescue”, a most excellent edition of health policy wonkery, proving that our regular participants have as many trenchant opinions and observations about healthcare post-reform as they did pre-reform.
And in some other news…
Elation – There aren’t all that many good news stories when you hear about a mine collapse but the world has just witnessed one of the rare exceptions in real time. Reuters put global TV viewership at more than a billion – everyone united to see a different kind of reality TV. The Boston Globe offers a powerful portfolio of rescue photos from the Big Picture, and you can also see an in-depth portfolio from the Chilean Government’s Flickr photostream. Newsweek offered a simple but powerful infographic about the ordeal: What if everything you needed to survive had to fit through this space? and The Telegraph offers excellent diagrams of the mine shaft and the rescue. If you haven’t had a chance to read Wright Thompson’s excellent article in Sports Illustrated, Above and Beyond, make it a point to do so. It’s a well-written article that explores the human story from the perspective of one of the miners, a former soccer star, and it also gives a glimpse into the miners’ ordeal and the engineering challenge of the rescue. Also noteworthy: Ken Ward’s thoughts posted at Coal Tattoo. Ward reports on West Virginia mining matters for the Charleston Gazette and has covered far too many mining stories that did not have happy endings. He writes about what we can learn from the Chilean mine rescue.
More on medical marijuana – “Would a request to pay for marijuana be subject to utilization review? What standards would utilization review use to review it?” These and other issues are considered in a recent article on medical marijuana in Risk & Insurance. In all, 14 states and 27 cities have legalized medial marijuana, which means that employers need to familiarize themselves with the laws governing their work force. Substance abuse expert William J. Judge says that employers should treat medical marijuana just as they would any other drug, such as opiates and amphetamines. He notes that the latter are a class of drugs that are illegal until prescribed.
Lifestyle issues and comp – My colleague Jon has been posting about obesity issues as they play out in real-world scenarios. Meanwhile, a new obesity report by the CDC explains the reason for concern, In 2000, there were no states with an obesity prevalence of 30% or more; now there are 9 states. Also, there is no state with an obesity prevalence of less than 15%. In addition to increased legal challenges around obesity issues, there is the additional factor that obesity hinders recovery. And it is not the only so-called “lifestyle issue” that puts a drag on recovery. The folks at Work Comp Complex Care blog look at smoking and how it impacts complex care recovery.
Social media – managing the risk – Check out More Media, More Opportunity, More Risk: The Upside and Downside of Social Media in this month’s issue of Risk Management Magazine. It’s a series of six articles that cover the benefits and the risks involved in social media, allowing with tips for how to manage the risk.
Free online WC conference – Over at Comp Time, Roberto Ceniceros notes that he will be moderating a free online workers comp conference which will address safety, cost control strategies, alternative risk financing, and comp claim medical costs, among other topics. It’s schedule for December 9, and will run for 5.5 hours.
Posts Tagged ‘mining’
Massey Energy Mine Disaster: The Soul of a Bean Counter
Monday, April 12th, 2010In our first blog of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster that took 29 lives last week, we made no attempt to point fingers. It was a time for mourning, for acknowledging the sacrifices of the brave men whose jobs never see the light of day. Well, now that the final death toll has been rendered – there were no survivors – it’s time for some accountability. Let’s begin at the top.
The CEO for Massey Energy is Don Blankenship. He is a man of humble and hard-scrabble beginnings, raised by a single mother. He worked as a union miner (an irony that will soon become evident) and attended Marshall University, where he received a degree in accounting. He worked for Massey Energy in the accounting department. where his fiscal skills and his penchant for cost controls helped him rise in the ranks, culminating in his becoming CEO in 2000. He is a vehement foe of organized labor, along with government regulations and the “the hoax and ponzi scheme” of global warming. (His business is coal, so his disbelief in global warming runs as deep as his mines.) Blankenship constantly battles regulators over safety infractions, including adequate ventilation of the mines (which at this point appears to be a major factor in last week’s exlosion).
While famous for his focus on production, Blankenship does give lip service to safety. In a July 2008 depostion defending Massey Energy’s safety record, he appears to talk the talk:
“As an accountant, I know that safety is an important cost control. So even if I were so calloused, which I am not, as to believe that safety should be sacrificed for production, I would understand that it doesn’t make any sense because the accidents and so forth cause you to have more costs.”
But somehow, in the dust and drive of production goals and profits, safety falls by the wayside. Blankenship does not walk the walk – or, as we are talking mines, he does not crawl the crawl.
Management Styles
There are clues to his management style in his personal life (a rather critical summary of which appeared in Business Week). His maid quit, saying the working conditions were intolerable. Ever the bean counter, the politically connected Blankenship successfully fought her application for unemployment benefits. The case wended its way to the West Virginia Supreme Court, where the maid prevailed. Two of the court’s justices said that “the unrefuted evidence” before the state unemployment agency showed that Blankenship “physically grabbed” the maid, threw food after she brought back the wrong fast-food order, and tore a tie rack and coat hanger out of a closet after she forgot to leave the hanger out for his coat.
“This shocking conduct” showed that she was, in effect, fired because she felt compelled to quit, the justices said. They said the conduct was “reminiscent of slavery and is an affront to common decency.”
The same, alas, could be said of Blankenship’s management of Massey Energy.
Humble No More
Don Blankenship earned about $11 million in 2008. Not bad for a man of humble beginnings. As for the survivors of the miners killed last week, they must turn to the West Virginia workers comp system, which will provide indemnity for widows and dependents. (It appears that Massey Energy is self insured for comp – a penny-pinching decision that is about to haunt Blankenship, big time.)
The company is also vulnerable under West Virginia law for civil suits: comp’s “exclusive remedy” provision can be transcended if you can prove “deliberate intent.” I would say that repeated stalling, appealing, stonewalling and dismissal of documented safety violations is likely to reach the “deliberate” standard.
You may remember the song “Sixteen Tons” – made famous by Tennesse Ernie Ford:
You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter, don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go;
I owe my soul to the company store.
Surely the miners had souls to put in hock. That may be more than can be said for the man who currently runs the company store.
Mining safety: not just for China
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010When the whistle blows each morning
And I walk down in this cold dark mine,
I say a prayer to my dear savior
Please let me see the sunshine one more day. A Miner’s Prayer
Our Google alert for safety today turned up the tragic story of 153 Chinese mine workers trapped underground in a flooded mine. China is a country that sees an annual miner death toll in the thousands:
“China’s mining industry is the world’s deadliest. Accidents killed “only” 2,631 coal miners last year, fewer than half the 6,995 deaths in 2002. However, many analysts doubt that the figures reflect reality, believing instead that many deaths simply go unreported.”
Here in the US, some retired miners might recall a day when our coal mining fatalities were up in the quadruple digits. We experienced more than one thousand annual coal mining fatalities through 1947. It wasn’t until after 1985 that fatalities dropped consistently from triple to double digits. Our worst disaster occurred in 1907, when 362 boys and men died in West Virginia’s Monongah Mine disaster after an underground explosion. In fact, the plethora of mining disasters with hundreds of fatalities were a backdrop leading to the establishment of better worker protections, including a workers compensation system. One can only hope the public will call for increasing safety and reforms in China mines.
For more on this story, we went to the best and most knowledgeable mining media source we know and it did not disappoint: Ken Ward’s Coal Tattoo has the latest coverage of the China tragedy, including an update which notes that warnings were ignored before mine flood. Ken reports on mining for the Charlotte Gazette. He and the people of West Virginia know quite a bit about mine disasters. Earlier this year, Ken reported that the nation experienced a record low in mining deaths last year – 34 – but he asks if that is enough. Good question. A little over a week ago, Ward reported that fewer than 1 in 10 U.S. mines have added improved communications and tracking equipment that could help miners escape an explosion or fire – a requirement after the MINER Act, a law that was prompted by a series of mining fatalities in 2006, including the Sago mine disaster.
Our sympathy goes out to the families of the China miners, who are suffering through a terrible vigil, the way so many other miners’ families have suffered. We can only hope that tragedy will serve as a catalyst to better safety advancements in China. And despite the progress we’ve made here in the U.S. over the years, we see by the recent report about the lackadaisical measures taken to protect our own miners, our memories are short.
Prior posts on mining
Cold comfort: Crandall Canyon survivors and workers comp
A bad way to make a living – links to interesting historical exhibits on mining
The sad, quiet death of Bud Morris – father, husband, motorcycle aficionado
The feds and Phantom Miners
Sago mining disaster and workers comp: newly formed insurer to pay benefits
Sago mining deaths: a sorry way to begin the new year
Fresh Health Wonk Review; Safety resources
Thursday, April 16th, 2009Glenn Laffel has a a new edition of Health Wonk Review posted over at Pizaazz – the “US Health Care Carousel of Progress” edition. Glenn is one of our newest contributors to HWR – check out his blog, too.
Coal Mining – Check out Coal Tattoo, a blog by Ken Ward Jr. award-winning reporter at The Charleston Gazette who has been covering the Appalachian coal industry for nearly 20 years. We’ve previously featured some of his reporting in our post The sad, quiet death of Bud Morris – father, husband, motorcycle afficianado. Unfortunately, he is reporting on sad, quiet deaths all too often. He talks about the interesting origen of his blog name on his bio page.
Good asbestos resource – The Mesothelioma Cancer Center is a valuable resource. The site has more than 3,000 pages of information on asbestos, mesothelioma, and other cancers that are caused by asbestos exposure (lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, etc.).
Substance abuse – OSHA reminds employers that April is Alcohol Awareness Month. Safety Advisor offers us a look at some sobering facts about alcohol and employee health. OSHA offers various tools addressing workplace substance abuse and Drug and Alcohol-Free Workplace Programs.
Lightning safety – With the good weather coming, Eric at The Safety Blog offers some good seasonal safety advice: Lightning Safety Guidelines.
15 TX workers linked to vermiculite exposure; echoes of Libby, Montana
Monday, August 20th, 2007Last week, the Dallas News reported that fifteen former workers and residents exposed to vermiculite from a West Dallas mineral processing plant are exhibiting signs of asbestos-related illnesses such as asbestosis and cancer, a development one physician termed as “alarming.” More than 400 employees, family members and nearby residents of the vermiculite plant have been tested, and of the 252 analyzed so far, about 6 percent are showing signs of asbestos related illness. The sample group represents only a portion of the total workers and nearby residents who may have been exposed from 1953 to 1992. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has issued an exposure evaluation fact sheet for Texas Vermiculite’s site in Dallas.
The Libby Montana connection: W.R. Grace trial set for September; Libby, Montana documentary to air
The Texas Vermiculite plant was operated by W.R. Grace & Co., and was one of a number around the nation that processed vermiculite from the company’s mine in Libby, Montana. For those who may not be familiar with the infamous events surrounding Libby, Montana, I would recommend a High Plains documentary film of the same name – “Libby, Montana – that will be airing on P.O.V. on August 28th at 10 PM. (Check your local PBS for times). The film tells the very troubling story of massive public health crisis affecting hundreds of ex-miners, their families, and the townspeople who have been stricken by asbestos-related illnesses. The exposure has been associated with more than 200 deaths to date. At least 1200 former workers and town residents have been stricken with asbestos-related illnesses. Many in the town are charging the EPA with foot-dragging in the emergency clean-up.
The documentary will provide background both for the TX exposure and for the W.R. Grace criminal trial scheduled to begin this September. In February 2005, W.R. Grace and seven of its executives were indicted in the Libby asbestos deaths.
Additional information on Libby, Montana
– Jordan Barab’s extensive coverage of Libby at Confined Space
– The Seattle Post Intelligencer’s Special Report series: Uncivil Action – A town left to die
– Trailer for Libby, Montana:
A bad way to make a living
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007
Every now and then ,we come across a historical site that catches our interest, either because it highlights an industry, a telling event, or some other matter related to work, insurance, or the matters that we tend to discuss here at Workers Comp Insider. Mining’s Legacy – a Scar on Kansas is just such a site. Hosted by the Lawrence Journal-World, the site uses text, video, photography and historical documents to tell the story of the mining industry in Cherokee and Crawford counties. The series chronicles the long-term impact that the industry has had on the landscape and the people of the area.
While the entire site is of interest, both for the historical and the contemporary significance, we found the worker stories to be quite compelling. “It was a bad way to make a living,” says 81 year-old Walter Weinstein, who went to work in the mines at the age of 12. He narrates a slide show that gives a good idea of the working conditions in the mines. It’s an interesting story, and one that will probably offer some perspective on any job annoyances you may have today.
A posting on discussion site Metafilter offers more colorful historical context around the industry, the era, and the geographic region.
The Department of Labor also has a fascinating historical mining exhibit on the Mine Safety and Administration Administration pages, encompassing topics such as the so-called breaker boys, children as young as 8 years old who worked the mines, “Eight Days in a Burning Mine”, the harrowing story of a survivor of the Cherry mine disaster, and pages focusing on the history of Irish, Asian, and Afro-American mine workers.
Not the stuff of yesteryear
Unfortunately, unsafe conditions are not just a matter of historical record. While safety has improved, mining continues to be among the world’s most dangerous professions, both here in the U.S., and in various points throughout the globe. Last year, U.S. coal mine deaths spiked to a 10-year high. Two weeks ago, we had our first U.S. miner death in 2007, and this week, at least 107 miners lost their lives in underground Siberian tunnels and in China, where at least 5,000 die in mining accidents each year, 15 workers perished in a flood and another 26 died in an unrelated explosion.
