Shanxi Province is the heart of coal country in China, which uses more coal than the United States, the European Union, and Japan combined. More than 30,000 mines are in operation in China—about 20 percent of which are illegal and unregulated. To understand the scope of the mine safety problem in China, consider the numbers: in the last decade, yearly coal mine deaths in the U.S. had a low of 22 (in 2005) and a high of 47 (in 2006) . In China, coal mines claim the lives of about 6,000 workers every year. An article in the Christian Science Monitor calls coal mining "the deadliest job in China."

>> The United States Mine Rescue Association tracks coal mine fatalities in China on its website.

>> West Virginian Duane Moles traveled to Shanxi Province to investigate how coal mining is affecting the lives of villagers in a new video report for FRONTLINE/World: "China: Undermined". Read his reporter notes on The Muckraker Blog by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Tag(s): China , Coal Mining
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EXPOSÉ's "Sustained Outrage" premieres on PBS tonight. Check local listings.

When mine disasters happen, the national news media comes running. But through careful data analysis, reporter Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette found most miners killed on the job don’t die in disasters that get national attention--rather most who are killed die alone. Collisions between coal transport cars crush workers. Boulders fall from the ceiling. Miners fall into the gears of machinery. But these stories, and the larger trend of unsafe mining conditions, rarely make headlines.

Ward put a decades worth of results from MSHA’s fatality reports into a database and came to the following conclusions:

Only 13 percent of the more than 100,000 coal miners killed in the United States in the last 100 years have died in mine disasters, which regulators define as accidents causing five or more deaths.

Between 1996 and 2005, there were 297 fatal coal-mining accidents that killed a total of 320 workers, U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration data shows. Eleven of those accidents claimed more than one life.

286 of the 320 miners killed on the job in the last decade died alone.

The biggest surprise after his six-month investigation: of 320 deaths in U.S coal mines in the past decade, 9 out of 10 were preventable – if the industry had followed its own safety regulations.

>> The Mine Safety and Health Administration tracks mining deaths from 1995 to the present on its website. Poynter.org also highlights other mine safety resources.

>> Read reporter Ken Ward’s tips for anyone interesting in investigating mine or worker safety issues.

Tag(s): Coal Mining , Ken Ward Jr. , Sago Mine
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Around 6:30 a.m. an explosion ripped through the Sago Mine in West Virginia. Thirteen miners were trapped underground. News crews from around the country descended on West Virginia's coal country. Lawmakers in Washington demanded stricter safety regulations and enforcement. The nation held its breath.

It took nearly twelve hours before rescue crews could even enter the mine. By the time rescuers dug the men out, all but one were dead.

While most reporters covered the Sago Mine story as a tragic accident, Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette decided to dig deeper. A fifteen-year veteran of the coal industry beat, Ward began examining mine records and visiting coalfields across West Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. He spoke to coal miners, mine operators, government inspectors, and lawmakers. What he found was chilling: Mine operators and owners were pushing for the cheapest, fastest production of coal—a high-priced commodity—and sacrificing the lives and safety of miners in the process. Safety regulations were being ignored. Miners were receiving inadequate training. Rescue crews were short-staffed or nonexistent.

Ward's series brought the systemic flaws of coal mining—what one mine safety lawyer called "an outlaw industry"—into the national spotlight.

>> Read Ken Ward's original series in The Charleston Gazette.

Tag(s): Coal Mining , Ken Ward Jr. , Sago Mine
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In the wake of the Sago Mine disaster, the Charleston Gazette goes deep inside the coal mining industry to reveal the lax safety measures and lack of oversight by a federal agency that can create deadly working conditions.

Tag(s): Coal Mining , Sago Mine
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