By Mike Davidow visit by U.S. miners to Donetsk and Donbas coal region, would pack more dynamite than a carload of blasting char- ges. Our coal miners, who have to fight the big business. coal operators to save their lungs and their lives, would learn | that socialist governments do care. They *) Would learn that coal mining, one of the y ost dangerous occupations, can-be made | Telatively safe even under the most haz-. ' ardous conditions. World’s richest, are also among the most 1 difficult and dangerous to work. Gas is _ the miner’s main enemy in the Denbas 7 and sudden explosions present a far great- _ &f menace than in U.S. mines. For the mines are among the deepest in the world, 80ing down as far as 4,200 feet. At that depth the temperature can reach 104 de- Brees F. ~ ,, During my two-day visit to the Donbas, the director of the Bazharov mine in 4 Makeevka, Anatoli Suhorukov, who is ; familiar with the problemis of U.S. mines, " told me: “God was more considerate to _ your miners; you have to face far less dif- qi ficulties and dangers than we.” That may j@ be, but as the huge army of black lung ; victims and other casualties of U.S. mine js, Catastrophes testify, greedy coal opera- 4 ‘Ors and an indifferent Washington more d than make up for advantages. The story of the Donbas miners is a dramatic demonstration that, with all the Soviet _government’s all-out efforts to if Meet the goals of its Five Year Plans, the @ Safety and well-being of Soviet workers, €specially those engaged in the most haz- cee jobs, remain the main considera- The USSR has mobilized an unparallel- army of scientists, technicians and | 8Pecialists to make up a formidable safe- ty and health force, which I observed in eee tion, I was shown all the- safety i) catures demonstrated at the Makeevka State Mining Safety Scientific Research ‘Institute and the Donetsk Coal Miners vmergency Rescue Headquarters, and on €n I saw them in operation 3,250 ft. be- _-©w the earth’s surface in the Bazharov mine in Makeevka. - |, Aleksandr Timoshenko is director of of the Makeevka institute, which was set up in 1927. The staff is composed of 1,350 Beeenuific and research workers whose “° up-to-date laboratory buildings spread 57 acres in park-like surroundings. LW € motto of this scientific force is ‘To ne War Against the Natural Enemies Of the Coal Miner and To Master Them.” p ; peach hazard faced by miners is stud- ae its own laboratory, and the special: ti Spend much time testing their solu- “ons in the mines. The mine I visited has ; Particularly close relationship with the nstitute- Makeevka scientists have concen-: : ated on finding ways to control four 1 2/©xPlosions, high temperature and. dust gi Particles (silicosis). A remarkable job as already been done. ql! Danger from methane gas and sudden OF *plosions (caused by pockets of gas and est Particles) have been reduced to a <7umum by a comprehensive system of Scientific detection and safety..mechan- ms. I saw this demonstrated. ; hen we came up from a depth of: = ft., Suhorukov took me to the mine Sontrol room. A graph on the automatic cae) chart showed 1.1 on the methane 73. \cale at the place we had been. At 5,” Considered to be the maximum al- Wable, a mechanism automatically uts off all the mine electricity, immed- aed Suspending all work in the danger eae All miners immediately leave the % a (they can’t work even if they want to : weg €verything is shut off) and|return Pi Y when normal safe conditions are Bs at oe: The chart showed that on Sept. mati ‘30 p.m. the electricity was auto- |atically shut” off because methane gas : a level -of 1.4%. Work was Sumed at 1 p.m., when normat condi- ONs Were restored, _ 4n the mine there was another safety D MAGAZINE ' Bae KgETy Makeevka, the heart of the rich ~ Ukrainian coal deposits, among the ain mining hazards: gas, unexpected’ Te BE ooo: pe : Each section of mine rests on 4 hydrav- lic cylinders which move to mine face. . Donbas IT mechanism, which automatically sounds an alarm when it detects methane gas. But Makeevka scientists.are not satis- fied because it depends too much on ‘‘sub- jective” factors: it has to be placed in the work area by the brigade leader. So’ the scientists have come up with a miner’s lamp which contains an element extreme- ly sensitive only to methane gas, which - causes it to blink, warning the miner of danger. This lamp will shortly be mass produced. : . Danger from sudden explosions has been vastly reduced by an intensive sci- entific study of coal layers and seams. The “‘hunt’’ for deadly gas pockets never ceases, and hazardous areas are all chart- ed and supplied with safety equipment. Dust, which causes silicosis, is com- batted with water. No other coal in the world. is washed down like Donbas coal. It literally gets a bubble bath — being washed with a chemical detergent. ‘‘No dust particles means no silicosis’’ Make- evka Institute director Timoshenko, stres- sed. one Water holes are drilled into seams about every 4 yards to wet down the coal beds, eliminating from 50 to 80% of the dust particles. The entire water process leader at the entrance to Bazharov mine. — : ue Anatoli Suhorukov, mine director, Mike Davidow, and Gleb Tolchennikov, coal mine Each section of the roof support system can withstand and 80-ton load. miners removes 95 to 97% of the dust. Asa result, the battle against silicosis has practical- ly been won. Suhorukov told me that last year there was only one case of silicosis among the 3,000 workers in his mine, and that in- volved a miner who had been in the mines 20 years. Cables are the life-lines of miners and they are guarded accordingly. The eleva- tors transporting miners to and from the depths of the earth are doubly protected by emergency brakes that act like para- _chutes in case of faulty cables. The cables themselves are constantly checked and tested: a mobile cable meter carried into the mines gives on-the-spot check-ups. - Temperature is controlled by a vast ventilation system that pumps cool pure air into the mine. When I was under- ground, the temperature was about 75. degrees F and a gentle breeze was blow- ing. : The Donbas mines have been made among the safest in the world and cer- tainly the casualty rate will stack up favorably with mines facing far less na- tural hazards. Moreover the battle for safety is being steadily advanced from yeartoyear. ' ; The mine I visited-is-a good example (it is considered one of the most difficult). In 1958 (it was opened in 1957) it had 163 accidents. In the first nine months of this year, it had 24 (only two serious, involv- ‘ing a broken leg and arm). An accident is considered serious if the worker is put out of commission for three days. There were no deaths this year; there was one last year. The accident rate is decreasing 20% a year. ‘“‘About 40% percent of our cost of production goes for providing safety and health measures,”’ Suhorukov noted. ‘‘The cost of our coal is greater than yours,” he added quietly. ' All this could not help but impress a U.S. delegation of coal experts who vis- ited the Makeevka Institute in June 4, 1970 and wrote in its book: ‘‘The U.S.A. delegation of coal experts (the first to visit officially the USSR) had the honor to visit the State Safety Mines Institute in Makeevka today. The work being done here must be an inspiration in coal mine safety advancement all over the world. We salute you in the excellency of your achievement.” Among the signers were Tom Mullins, C. Lynch Charleston and Helmut A. Rickey II. : The elaborate set-up the Soviet gov- ernment provides to safeguard miners is matched by the huge force it has organ- ized to rescue them when and if disaster strikes. We were impressed by the stark contrast this highly efficient, permanent organization presented to the haphazard rescue operations mobilized to meet our mine catastrophes in the U.S. The emergency headquarters is al- most a city in itself. It includes 2,000 workers of whom 1,000 are technicians, 250 coal mining engineers, 40 candidates of science who work in a beautiful build- ing housing 22 huge laboratories. It has its own school and dormitory for 200 students and a special medical group consisting of 120 doctors and assistants. We saw a fleet of special emergency trucks (we counted 18) on the alert, ready to respond in 90 seconds. ‘“‘We have few accidents,’ director Ivan Belik told us, “but we have to be ready.”’ The emergency headquarters makes its own safety and rescue equipment which it exports to 18 countries. Soviet miners are rewarded for their hard and dangerous jobs with living stand- ards higher than those of most other work- ers. Their pay is three times the average wage. They can retire at 50 — ten years earlier than men in most other industries — and if they choose to continue work their pension raises their pay to four times the average wage. They get up to 45 days of fully paid vacation a year. The miners union has an unparalleled network of sanitoriums, rest homes and week-end sanitoria at all the best vaca- tion spots in the Soviet Union, and the un- ion picks up 70% of the miner’s vacation tab. They have nurseries and summer camps for their children at minimal cost. Miners who study after working hours are given two 20-day periods off each year (with pay) to prepare for their exams. Soviet miners do not live in drab, dirty dull mining towns far removed from the cultural life of the country. They live in neat, solid homes near or on the edge of beautiful, clean, fresh, culturally- alive cities like Donetsk and Makeevka. Donetsk, population one million, is an industrial giant with sinews. of steel and coal. But it has space and clear skies to encompass its park-like streets that abound with sweet-smelling acacia trees. It has beautiful well-stocked stores that compare very favorably with those of Moscow. Nature gave Donetsk little. An architectural institute planned, and Donetsk workers built, the artificial river, the lovely parks, modern apart- ment houses, the 50,000-seat stadium, the science and research institutes, the opera and ballet theater, circus and dramatic theaters and the Donetsk University. But perhaps what impressed us most: was the honor paid to coal miners. Don- etsk’s ehief monument is a coal miner who stands proudly in ‘the center of the _ city — the real master of his realm. PACIFIC TRIBUNE SERIRAY. CANUARY 28, 1972--BAGES