The Health-Impaired Miner Under the Black Lung Legislation. Revised.

The report reviews the administration of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 with respect to coal workers' pneumoconiosis (black Lung) and analyzes the results. The objective of establishing and maintaining cleaner air in the mines has been substantially achieved by the Bureau of Mines inspection system. The second, which provided that an afflicted, but not disabled, miner could transfer to a job in clean air, has been used sparingly by the miners. The third, which provided for Federal benefits for miners fully disabled by black lung (and for widows and orphans) has been highly successful in numbers of beneficiaries. As of October, 1972, about 88,000 miners and 87,900 widows and orphans were receiving benefits. In 1972 Congress amended the legislation to extend the benefits to other lung diseases, and another 23,800 miners qualified on that basis, with the processing still incomplete by December 1972. On July 1, 1973, the Federal program becomes the responsibility of the Department of Labor for a transition period with benefit payments charged back to the industry. On January 1, 1974, the program is to be returned to the States under workmen's compensation laws subject to Federal standards. (Author/KM)