Mining is dangerous work
Nearly everyone around the country and possibly the world has heard about the collapse of the Utah mine on Monday. Several men are as of this entry still trapped about 1500 feet below the surface. Rescue efforts are continuing yet today. No one knows what they will find when they reach the point where the miners are suspected to be located.
The family members are holding on to the hope that their loved ones will be found soon and alive. The belief is that if they survived the cave-in then they should have access to fresh water and possible air as well. Only time will tell what the outcome will be.
The owner seems optimistic and for the trapped miners and their families I hope the news will be good. What I don’t understand is with all the technology that has been developed why men still need to risk their lives daily to bring this natural resource out from under the ground. If it is that important then a better way should have been discovered that is less risky. I am a believer that alternatives could have been found long ago. These brave men continue to be driven far beneath the ground everyday. This occurs while mining inspectors are auditing and charging mine owners with numerous violations and imposing fines.
Somehow these violations never seem to get fixed. But, why would they? The fines are in many cases very small according to CorpWatch.org. On January 10, 2006 USA today reported on some of the things that have happened surrounding the fines. It appears to not be very painful for some owners to pay the fines. Yet, there are some who believe that mining is safe and not as dangerous as I think.
Mining Video
2 comments:
Yeah, didn't the Big Giant Head of that particular mine tell the press that they had a very good record, when in fact they had something like 500+ violations inside of one year? S'up wid dat?
Someone in the company made a statement like that. However, the number of writeups were more like 325.
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