Mountain State Matters

A week ago, I wrote a post about coal mining and drug use, specifically about a blog’s suggestion that testing coal miners for drugs would eliminate the rampant drug abuse that often exists in the mines. The blogger responded today:

I seriously doubt a coal miner will get fired for using painkillers in a legally prescribed manner. If you test positive for a prescription drug, your employer will not fire you if you have a legitimate prescription and follow the law regarding its use.

The whole point of testing is to remove people from the workplace who are a danger to themselves and co-workers. The bottle says “Do Not Operate Heavy Machinery” for a reason.

I think the blogger missed my point. My argument was NOT that coal miners (or anyone for that matter) should be operating heavy machinery under the influence of drugs or alcohol, nor that a miner would be fired for having a prescription drug (which was legally prescribed) in his system.

I simply don’t think drug testing miners is the complete solution. Drug testing WOULD remove those addicted to drugs from the mines, which would take away one safety hazard. However, I don’t think drug testing addresses the root of the problem.

To confirm, I called a friend of mine in Wyoming County, WV who wanted to be known as “Wild Bill the Coal Miner.” Bill confirmed that most of the miners he knows on painkillers became hooked because they were prescribed the pills after a mining-related accident. “Three to eight months down the road when it’s time to not take them anymore, your body is physically and mentally dependent on them,” he said.

Bill also said that there is no way a miner would work with someone they knew was under the influence of drugs while at work, partly due to the danger of the job. “You’re going to let someone know,” he said. “You aren’t going to let a man work next to you who’s messed up. It’s bad for everyone.”

It’s inaccurate to say that I am against removing “the miner who is addicted to a narcotic to the point of being a danger to others” from the workplace. Mines need to be made safer, period. However, as I stated in my original post, often these drug problems originate with mining. The U.S. Mining Safety and Health Administration has been continuously criticized for “serious and systemic lack of diligence in protecting miners,” most recently because of the cave-in in the Utah mine in August 2007 that killed nine people.

Drug testing is a band-aid solution that won’t get at the deeper issue of miners being hurt in the course of everyday work. The issue, by the way, is larger than mining. An editorial in the Charleston Gazette today outlined the issue, focusing on workplace deaths in fields other than mining. There was no mention of drugs, but of negligence.

In more serious news, Education Week released their 2008 State Technology Grades. The results? West Virginia was the ONLY state to receive a grade of “A” for their overall use of educational technology in grades K-12. The report deemed that West Virginia was exemplary in providing access to technology, using the technology and  including the technology in its teacher and administrator standards.

From working (temporarily) in a WV public school, I would have to agree. Every classroom had one or more computers, there were several computer labs, and I was generally impressed by the familiarity most kids had with the computers. It’s admirable that the state education system has put so much emphasis on technology in the schools, as there are parts of the state where broadband isn’t yet available and personal computer use isn’t as widespread as it is in more urban areas.

Despite all this technology, the state’s achievement levels are still lagging the rest of the nation, according to the report. The superior technology grade is a great start, but until that technology begins translating into higher student achievement, there’s still work to be done.

Hot dogs are representative of America, and perhaps more American than the reliable fall-back apple pie. Each city and state has a different way of enjoying hot dogs (and according to an exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, each baseball stadium has a unique way as well).

Hot dogs in West Virginia are different, as shown by two connected websites dedicated to the dog: W.Va. Hot Dog and The West Virginia Hot Dog Blog. The West Virginia Hot Dog is a “uniquely delectable gift from heaven,” according to the blog, which should be accompanied at all times by mustard, slaw, chili and onions. Ketchup?

There are many reasons why one shouldn’t eat ketchup on a hot dog any hot dog. First, the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council’s “Hot Dog Etiquette” rules dictate that no one over 18 should never eat ketchup on a hot dog. Ketchup is destructive of all that is right and just about a properly assembled hot dog since its sweetness and acidic taste overpowers food and disguises its true flavor.

In the film Sudden Impact, San Francisco detective Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) launches a tirade while conversing with a cop who’s munching a ketchup-topped dog at a murder scene:

“Nah, this stuff isn’t getting to me — the shootings, the knifings, the beatings… old ladies being bashed in the head for their social security checks[.] [...] Nah, that doesn’t bother me. But you know what does bother me? You know what makes me really sick to my stomach? It’s watching you stuff your face with those hot dogs. Nobody… I mean nobody puts ketchup on a hot dog.” We agree with Harry.

Possibly the coolest thing about this already-cool site is the slaw map. Cole slaw is something that isn’t typically put on a hot dog outside of the state (in fact, when I sent a friend this website his response to a picture of a loaded hot dog was “is that egg salad?”). I think this map accurately shows the cultural divides within West Virginia. You can get slaw throughout much of the state, but the northern and eastern panhandles are a bit “slawless,” perhaps because they are culturally closer to Ohio and D.C. The northern counties are also a bit different, and sometimes don’t offer slaw.

Yum.

Hot dog photo by VJ Beauchamp

The Associated Press reported today that Massey Energy plans on opening up a new coal mine at the rate of one every 17 days this year.

Massey is positioning itself to take advantage of soaring demand and prices for Appalachian coal. The expansion is centered on underground coal mines, giving Massey alternatives if a court decision that would make it more difficult and time consuming to get federal permits for surface mines is upheld.

“We have all the permits,” Chief Executive Don Blankenship told Wall Street analysts during a conference call Friday. “We have a line of equipment that’s set up that takes us beyond these currently announced expansion plans.”

Massey has a significant presence in West Virgina. Most recent notable Massey news:

• The company had to pay $20 million civil penalty in a corporate-wide settlement for polluting the streams of West Virginia and Kentucky in a flagrant violations of the Clean Water Act.
• Massey refused to do anything about the fact that one of their mountaintop removal mines was located 400 yards upslope from an elementary school (Marsh Fork Elementary in Sundial, WV), and a break in the impoundment dam would allow school officials only three minutes to evacuate the entire student population before the school would be under 15 feet of water.
• Massey CEO Don Blankenship was accused of threatening to shoot an ABC News producer when the reporter tried to interview him in a parking lot.

The Beckley Register-Herald reported last week that the Beckley City Council is considering tightening an ordinance to limit the number of cats and dogs people can have outside their homes. The ordinance would restrict homeowners to “three cats, three dogs, period.”

According to both [City Manager Bob] Cannon and Mayor Emmett Pugh, this comes after the city has handled numerous complaints about some residents having extremely large numbers of pets. Some of these pet owners, they say, have caused grief for their neighbors with noise from barking dogs and the smell of feces coming from their properties. Cannon said he receives about five complaints about dogs per day.

Excessive pets are often problems in poorer areas. The New York Times published a story about pets in Tennessee last July, reporting how in impoverished communities pet owners often can’t afford to spay or neuter animals, and local governments may not require licensing or provide animal shelters.

But is Beckley’s solution the answer? If this proposed ordinance becomes law, I can see the most common solution being abandoning or killing stray animals. As far as I can tell, the proposal doesn’t put into place free spaying and neutering programs, which would probably be a more effective way to control the city’s animal population. Actually, this reminds me vaguely of China’s one-child policy, though I’m not going to make a comparison between a stray dog and a child.

Photo by: *MarS

The Charleston Gazette reported today that West Virginia is the third-most dangerous state in the nation to work in, trailing only Alaska and Wyoming in workplace death rates.

However, I’m not sure that mandatory drug testing would be the answer, as suggested today on Think Tank, the Official Blog of the WV Republican Club.

True, Kentucky now tests its coal miners. However, the issue of coal mining and painkillers isn’t an issue that can be resolved by testing and firing all miners who are found to have drugs in their system. Which came first, for the majority of coal miners: coal mining or painkillers? Coal mining.

An excellent in-depth article in The Washington Post last January by Nick Miroff chronicled the lives of Virginia miners like Jeff Trapp, who got prescribed Oxycontin because of mining accidents and ended up hooked.

With disability rates as high as 37 percent in coal-mining areas such as Buchanan County, the region has many people with long-term pain management needs. As is the case with lots of aging miners, Trapp’s addiction to pills began in a doctor’s office, not a back-alley drug deal.

“Busted-up” from 30 years working as a heavy-equipment operator and mechanic on the massive excavators used for strip mining and mountaintop removal, Trapp needed multiple surgeries to fix seven ruptured and herniated discs. Doctors wanted to implant a magnesium rod to stabilize his spine, but Trapp refused.

“I’ve known too many people who’ve done it, and they can’t tie their shoes,” he said.

So Trapp loaded up on painkillers, first Percocet and later OxyContin. When the prescribed dose no longer did the job, Trapp took more. Then more. He began “doctor shopping,” driving to Roanoke and Richmond to find physicians who would give him prescriptions.

When the pharmacies couldn’t provide enough pills, Trapp found dealers who would. Friends were melting oxycodone tablets and injecting themselves — “bangin’ OCs” — but Trapp was too squeamish to mess with needles. He crushed the tablets and snorted them like cocaine off his kitchen table. He didn’t feel high, just “good.” The relief was instant.

“I got hooked on those bad boys real bad,” he says.

The Pump Handle, a public health blog, responded to Nick Miroff’s article. Celeste Monforton (who works for the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy at George Washington University and used to work for OSHA and MSHA) commented that MSHA has focused heavily on the problems and hazards caused by miners who come to work under the influence of alcohol and drugs. However, all the stress was put on creating a “Drug Free” workplace.

I went back to the symposium’s summary report and was disappointed to find nothing—absolutely nothing—about preventing workplace injuries as a way to avoid (at least) some cases of substance abuse. Should a little bit of money for the “war on drugs” be redirected to a war on workplace injuries?

The New York Times printed a recipe for the risotto Pope Benedict XVI was served when he arrived in New York last week. The Pope, it turns out, was a bit picky.

Mostly, the Vatican’s instructions reflected the digestive needs of a man who had just turned 81 and was at the end of an intense road trip.

He wanted food that was light and seasonal. And the two formal dinners he ate in the wood-lined dining room at the five-story town house of the papal nuncio to the United Nations on East 72nd Street were to last only 80 minutes.

Besides security checks as each dish was prepared, the most important edict was this: The pope couldn’t handle spices.

The best part? Though there was no mention of this in the article, when you check out the risotto recipe, it contains RAMP PESTO. What a great idea, but I hope the Pope can handle pungent flavors and aromas. I wonder how his subsequent meetings of the day went.

Ramps: if they’re good enough for the Pope…

Access to high-speed internet isn’t an issue that comes up very often in highly-populated suburban and urban centers, but is much more of a problem for those in rural areas. In a bill that was authored in February and signed earlier this month, Governor Manchin said that bringing broadband internet to every crevice of the state by 2010 was a primary goal for the state and the legislature. Can this happen in two short years?

Internet has become a huge part of our culture, and I, for one, consider it as my main form of information, responsible for most of my contact with the rest of the country and the world. But look at that map to the left created by Connect West Virginia (click on it to make it bigger). Most of West Virginia is white on that map, meaning that there is no high-speed Internet access. Granted, some of the white areas are likely mountains that aren’t heavily populated, but most of the state’s population is rural.

If the whole state has Internet access by 2010, the governor needs to make sure that the service is useful to the majority of the state. The bill is to be commended for specifically focusing on providing “outreach and education in underserved areas,” but that’s likely not enough because without computers, the Internet will be useless. Now, outreach and access combined with frequent public computer labs would be useful, and would play a large part in education and job skills throughout the state.

Rusty Marks from the Charleston Gazette is on his way to Iraq to report on West Virginians’ war contributions. He’ll be stationed with the WV National Guard’s 111th Engineer Brigade. He seems to definitely have a digital camera, but I wonder if he’ll be able to send back audio and video as well. Anyway, check out today’s dispatch from the field and his blog.

The Appalachian Regional Commission just launched a new site in cooperation with National Geographic: Visit Appalachia. The site offers driving tours throughout the 13 states that comprise the region of Appalachia.

The website is pretty well done, but has a couple of problems. Here are some pros and cons.

Pros:

• The layout. It’s cool…it’s like driving in a car. I like that it’s interactive, yet easy to follow and not confusing.
• The navigation. You can browse driving tours by state, theme or route, which should make it easy for anyone looking to plan a driving tour throughout Appalachia.

Cons:

• I don’t like the way the designers chose to scroll down the page. There’s not really a scroll, but instead you have to click and drag the arrow bar. This is a mild annoyance.
• This is a big one: it doesn’t always work. Although subsequent tests have proven that many routes do work, the first one I tried didn’t. The page for the Coal Heritage Trail (from Bluefield snaking up through Welch and Mullens to Beckley) worked beautifully, but when I clicked on “Visit Route Website,” the homepage for West Virginia Byways pops up. To find the information for the Coal Heritage Trail, I had to search that web page (the correct site, for anyone interested, is located here). Similarly, when you click on the “Google Map” link, you’re taken to a Google Map which doesn’t display the correct route (and instead takes visitors up I-77).

Anyway, just my two cents. The website has the potential to be a really awesome resource for anyone looking to drive around Appalachia, but these little bugs need to be fixed out first.