Protecting the life and limb of our workmen: work, death, and regulation in the Rocky Mountain coal-mining industry

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:5296116

Whiteside, J B

This is a study of work, death, and regulation in the coal-mining industry in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. It shows not only that the mines were extremely dangerous, but why; and it shows what was done to try to improve conditions in the mines. It examines the physical, technical, economic, and institutional relations of work; the interest of operators and miners in implementing or avoiding changes in the work environment; evolving attitudes and legal doctrines on the issues of responsibility for safety in the mines and the proper role of government in regulating work conditions; and, finally, how all of this was reflected in coal-mining laws. Until recent years, state and federal laws focused on the problem of preventing explosion disasters. For that reason, they failed to significantly reduce the rates of death in the mines. They failed because they did not effectively address either the causes of the great majority of deaths, or the contributing conditions in the relations of work. Eventually, improved coal mine fatality rates owed as much, or more, to fundamental changes in the industry, and in the relations of work, as to laws and regulations. Mechanization and, to a lesser degree, unionization brought about safer conditions by transforming the environment in which coal miners worked.

• Research Organization: Colorado Univ., Boulder (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5296116
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
016000* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Health & Safety
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290300 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
294001 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Coal
COAL INDUSTRY
COAL MINERS
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
INDUSTRY
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
LEGAL ASPECTS
MINERS
MOUNTAINS
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
PERSONNEL
REGULATIONS
ROCKY MOUNTAINS
SAFETY