Miners usually work shifts, and they can be on for 10 days in a row. Some head down before sunrise and return anywhere from seven to 12 hours later.
Curtis Burton, 42, said at Cumberland Mine in Greene County, Pennsylvania, there are three eight-hour shifts, but each one ends up taking 10 hours, because of the two hours it takes to get to the site before miners can get to work.
"Everyday when you go underground you're seeing a part of the earth nobody is else is seeing ever. I always thought it was neat," he said.
Source: Washington Post
In Germany, they say "Glueck Auf," which roughly translates to "good luck," because of how uncertain the coal miner's life is.
When Burton was going down into the mines every day, he said he kissed the photograph of his daughter who had passed away, and asked her to make sure to look out for him and ensure he got out.
Source: Mining Technology
Floors can heave and walls can collapse. Miners call it a "bounce."
That ended in 1986, and was replaced by an electronic detector that provides a digital reading of gases. Monitoring the mines is necessary, because methane doesn't have a smell, and it can't be seen. Typically, the deeper a mine goes, the more methane is released, because there's more pressure. When methane mixes with coal dust the combination can be explosive.
According to Edward Kavazanjian Jr., a professor of civil engineering at Arizona State University, the problem isn't setting up proper ventilation. It's that coal mines sometimes cut corners, not wanting to waste valuable resources, like time and money.
Source: Time
Source: The New York Times
Although some miners are more tired having to defend their jobs all the time from the public's negative perception of it.
Source: NPR
Source: Washington Post
Burton said pepperoni roles were a staple, along with ham and lunch meat sandwiches. Mines also now have microwaves. He said in his time he'd had some pretty good, inventive meals underground. Sometimes, they cooked on top of a load center, which is a power distribution box with 12,470 volts running through it, that everything plugs into.
"On several occasions, my wife would make a big pan of lasagna for the guys on the crew," he said. "They're your family; you're often around them more than your family."
So for Christmas dinner, or Thanksgiving, he would bring down a pan of lasagna and put it on top of the hot load center, so that come lunch time the team would have a nice hot meal.
In the US, you don't need a college education to be paid well. In Kentucky, in 2011, if a miner was willing to work overtime, they could be bringing in $100,000 a year, plus overtime.
For Burton, who never planned to be a miner, even though several family members had worked in mines, it was the pay that drew him to it.
"It was dumb luck," he said. "I looked around and thought what can I make the most money doing, and my buddy said mining is making money at the time." He started on $20 an hour, and it grew on him from there.
Burton said working for the coal mining company on the surface wasn't quite the same.
Source: ABC News
Source: Time
Source: The Week
Source: EIA
Sources: NPR, Encyclopedia Britannica
When the ceilings collapse, it actually relieves pressure in the mine. Excavation has improved also with most coal mines using machines to chisel out the coal instead of explosives.
In 2011, longwall mining was responsible for 40% of coal in the US from underground mines.
This type of mining can impinge on people who live in the area, however. The heavy machinery can cause noise pollution, and the removal of such large amounts of coal can cause roads to crack and streams to empty.
The year before, 34 people died mining, which was a record low for the US.
The US had its worst ever coal mining accident in 1907, when 362 people died after a coal mine exploded in Monongah, West Virginia. That year, 3,242 people died in coal mining accidents. Coal mines have continued to have fires and explosions, killing hundreds of miners over the years.
Burton said he would like to believe mines have gotten safer, but during times of economic hardship mines often started making cutbacks, which could be dangerous.
He had his own scare in August 2005, when he was in a mine with a good friend and the roof buried them. They were injured but they survived. Despite the danger, he said he was always going to continue working.
"To me, at that time, there was no question. I was going back in. I don't like to say it's part of the job, but you understand the inherent nature of the beast when you go underground. Most guys hopefully understand things happen, that you're still dealing with mother nature underground. If you do something she don't like she's gonna let you know about it."
Black lung comes from inhaling coal dust. The dust blankets the miner's airways, and when white blood cells try to break the dust particles down, they fail, and end up damaging lung tissue instead.
Between 2011 and 2016, a NPR and Frontline investigation found more than 2,000 coal miners had black lung in Appalachian states alone, when the federal government had only reported 99 cases across the country.
"It's more prevalent today then it ever was because the machinery is bigger. As you run back and forth with bigger machinery, it makes a lot more breathable dust that gets into the air," he said.
He said mines had practices to alleviate it, like wetting down roadways, installing proper ventilation, turning on water sprays, ensuring cuttings heads were working properly, and making sure miners positioned themselves to minimize harm. They also tried to control and direct the dust.
"But it's not a problem that's going away easily," he said.
"When you get coal dust in your lungs, you want to go back," he told ABC News in 2010.
Sources: The Week, The Guardian
Sources: US Energy Information Administration, The New York Times, The New York Times, The Atlantic
Source: Financial Times
Source: The New York Times
Source: BBC
"Rat hole" mining has been popular in India, which is typically where vertical shafts cut down into hills, and then branch out and turn into narrow tunnels. They're dangerous and were banned in 2014, but still exist in parts of the country.
In two-foot high tunnels, workers dig for coal for hours without taking a break. One miners' skin went hard and black because he lay for such long hours on his side digging for coal, the BBC reported.
Others might move to try find work at another coal mine. If miners are too old, or in bad physical condition, they could take it as an early retirement.
Next Story
