The Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster

[Don P]

Something that was posted brought up a memory. In this case it was quite different, what was suffocating people was dust from the job. The largest industrial "accident" in the US happened during the depression when they were building the Hawks Nest tunnel through Gauley Mt to create the New River "dries". They sent the river through the mountain to generate power from the drop at the far side.

A quarter of the 3,000 men in the hole died from silicosis over the next very few years. Industry's expendables. Whenever I hear "we need the jobs", think it through, that job didn't help those families.

The Hawk's Nest Tunnel Disaster: Summersville, WV - New River Gorge National Park & Preserve (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

I guess I did put this in health and safety. Silicosis is still at work. I know a mason that will not be here much longer, lack of respect for that dust.

[rusticretreater]

I have been researching sand blasters recently and have seen numerous posts in forums and watch videos where people are using sandbox sand to do sandblasting.

The United Kingdom banned blasting with Silica Sand in 1949, followed by all the European Countries in 1966.  Australia finally got around to it in 2002.

The US of course took forever. 

In 1974, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommended that silica sand (or other substances containing more than 1% free silica) be prohibited as abrasive blasting material and that less hazardous materials be used in blasting operations [NIOSH 1974b].

In 1992, NIOSH issued an Alert titled ‘Request for Assistance in PREVENTING SILICOSIS AND DEATHS FROM SANDBLASTING’ [NIOSH publication 92-102].

And THEN on June 23 2016, the US Government finally codified a law to protect American workers from Silicosis. "OSHA's Final Rule to Protect Workers from Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica". Silica, Crystalline - Overview | Occupational Safety and Health Administration

[Ron Scott]

Many of the West Virginia coal miners are infected with what is called "Black Lung" disease from their constant exposure to coal dust.

[Wlmedley]

A couple years before I retired I got a letter from MSHA offering a free chest x-ray to check for black lung and silicosis.I never worked underground at the mines but had been exposed to a lot of coal and rock dust working on rotary drills used to drill blast holes at surface mines and other equipment around coal cleaning plants.Luckily tests came back negative.Some of my coworkers weren’t so lucky.Nothing can be done for it. I think they got a settlement of some sort but you really can’t put a price on your health.They say the dust you can’t see is what gets you.My grandpa used to take us to Hawks Nest when we were kids.Only about 1 1/2 hour drive from here but we thought it was a really long road trip.He said when the tunnel was being built there was always a large group of men waiting to take the sickest mens jobs when they could no longer work.They wouldn’t use water when drilling because it slowed down the process.

[Don P]

That reminds me of the stories I've heard about other WPA era jobs. "Relaxed" or non existant work rules and droves of starving men trying to feed starving families, lined up to replace those who could no longer work at projects like Hoover Dam and Golden Gate Bridge. We have very short memories, keep these stories alive.

John Henry was probably on a work release gang working alongside a steam drill, probably on the Lewis tunnel in Bath county, VA. He was the steel driver, he hammered the steel chisel. He had a shaker, right at the business end of the drill, who would turn the chisel and clear between blows. The steam drill had no "shaker" and worked in a bind of dust all the time. Those men also mostly died of silicosis.
Q&A with Nelson: Beyond the myth of John Henry | William & Mary (wm.edu)

The other thing that brought all this to mind was watching a young millwright dressing gristmill stones. I've been trying to remember the name they had for that "disease" among grindstone makers from way back.

Where I am there was mining but we are below the coalfieds. Textiles and furniture were big. The mills are largely gone, the mill town nearby still has the dam and powerhouse but the mill is now paving the streets of New Orleans. The workers have mostly passed away, brown lung was very common when I first moved here, years of inhaling fiber.