Kentucky Screenings of Miners Highlights Risk of Drug Use

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More than 1,500 coal miners have tested positive for drug use since Kentucky began screenings six years ago, a state attorney told lawmakers, and he urged lawmakers to close legal loopholes that can allow miners who test positive to return to their jobs within days.

Mike Haines, who oversees the Office of Mine Safety and Licensing’s screening program, said drug abuse creates additional risks in the already dangerous coal industry.

The House Natural Resources and Environment Committee approved legislation (House Bill 385) last Thursday that would revoke the mine certifications for three years for first offenders, five years for second offenders and life for third offenders.

Current law allows miners to be retested after 10 days. In some cases, those who test negative can then return to work.

Natural Resources Commissioner Steve Hohmann said the latest legislation, which now goes to the full House for consideration, could make the state’s coal mines safer.

“Mining itself can be hazardous,” Hohmann said. “If you compound that with drug use among workers coming in the mines, it increases exponentially the dangers in the mine.”

The legislation would allow Kentucky to revoke certificates of miners who have tested positive in other states. It also would allow miners to seek treatment, after which their certificates could be reinstated.

Kentucky led the nation in coal deaths last year with eight miners killed on the job. All the incidents involved miners struck by falling rocks or equipment. None was drug related.

Safety advocates contend tougher standards have paid off in the nation’s mines. Between 1900 and 1947 it was common to have annual U.S. death tolls in coal mines between 1,000 and 3,000. The record high was 3,242 in 1907. That year, the nation’s most deadly mine explosion killed 358 people near Monongah, W.Va.

The last time more than 100 people died in the nation’s coal mines in a single year was 1984, when 125 miners were killed. The record low for coal mine deaths in a single year was 18 in 2009.

Haines said most of the miners testing positive in drug screenings have been abusing prescription painkillers, which have become the drug of choice in Kentucky.

Gov. Steve Beshear calls prescription drug abuse “a dreaded calamity” in Kentucky, where more than 80 overdose deaths per month have been attributed to overdoses.

Beshear and other top state officials, including Attorney General Jack Conway, House Speaker Greg Stumbo and Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers II, have been pushing a variety of legislative initiatives, including one that would limit Oxycontin and other powerful painkillers to no more than 30-day allotments in an effort to restrict the supplies of the drugs to addicts.

Haines said 23 percent of coal miners sanctioned for drug abuse have regained their certifications, making them eligible to return to work.

Officials suspect that miners who didn’t regain their certification either dropped out of the coal industry or moved to other states like neighboring West Virginia that don’t require drug testing.