Mine Safety Legislation

Following the Sago Mine disaster that took the lives of 12 miners in West Virginia in January, the Senate has come up with a plan to avoid future tragedies. Under terms of a recently struck deal, more emergency oxygen supplies and better monitoring would be on hand at all times.

Under the current policy, miners only possess one hour of oxygen as they set to work. Proposed legislation would double that amount. It also would require mine operators to store extra oxygen packs along escape routes. Randal McCloy Jr., the only trapped miner who survived at Sago, has said that at least four of the miners' air packs did not work, forcing the men to share.

Air packs have a history of malfunctioning; past problems have included deteriorating hoses and excessive carbon dioxide emissions, according to a review of federal Mine Safety and Health Administration records. Eleven of the trapped miners died from carbon dioxide poisoning.

The Boston Globe reported that Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming - the top lawmakers on the committee that oversees workplace safety issues - have promised the families of the miners killed in the Sago accident that they would improve safety conditions.

''Congress should pass this legislation immediately, and the president should sign it into law this year," Kennedy said.

Dennis O'Dell, the top safety specialist at United Mine Workers of America, supported the proposed changes. They're better late than never.

''I think we should have done that way before now, but I'm happy to see that we're moving forward with that," he said.

The bill also would require mines to have two-way wireless communications and tracking systems in place within three years.

''NMA is especially gratified by the bill's inclusion of measures to improve communications and tracking and enhance mine rescue and air supply," Kraig Naasz, president and chief executive of the National Mining Association, said in a statement.

Relatives of some of the miners killed in the Sago accident attended a news conference on Capitol Hill yesterday. They urged the passage of safety legislation this year.

''Safety has got to be put before production, and it's got to be put before profits," said Deborah Hamner, whose husband, George, died in the West Virginia mine.