Published June 1994 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd Working for Working West Virginians
In approaching the new millennium, West Virginia, as the rest of the country, must meet the challenges of a global economy by continuing our efforts to maximize our productivity. Honing this competitive edge has been, and will continue to be, inextricably tied to the health and safety of our work force. Growing up in West Virginia's coal fields made me acutely aware of the health and safety needs of the worker. Consequently, much of my public service career has been aimed at improving the working conditions of West Virginia's workers. In 1969, I secured the first funding for the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beckley, and I have continued to support this critical facility by adding more than $23 million, over the years, to build, equip, and operate it. In 1992, I dedicated a new disaster simulation laboratory there. This lab gives disaster- relief workers realistic experience in responding to mine emergencies. In the early 1960's, I pioneered efforts toward improved worker safety by establishing the Appalachian Laboratory on Occupational Safety and Health (ALOSH) in Morgantown. Subsequently, recognizing increased needs and the commendable work taking place at the ALOSH facility, I added nearly $60 million to appropriations bills, beginning in fiscal 1990, to construct and equip a new ultra-modem laboratory at Morgantown-- the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). NIOSH, construction of which is slated for completion in early 1995, is planned to be a world-class center for research into workplace health and safety. The work at NIOSH is intended to put worker safety and health considerations at the forefront of the planning stage of any workplace construction or design project. As a complement to these efforts, I recently announced that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has chosen to designate West Virginia University (WVU) as the location of its Region III OSHA Training Center. This initiative, which will be a collaborative endeavor between WVU and the AFL-CIO -- serving West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia-- will offer public training classes targeted to safety administrators, industry officials, and others interested in worker safety. From the steel mills in our northern panhandle, to the chemical plants in the Kanawha Valley, to our southern coalfields, West Virginia's industries -which, by their very nature, entail hazardous activities for our workers -- are realizing the competitive bonuses of promoting a safe and healthy work force. Indeed, West Virginia's pioneering efforts with the National Mine Safety and Health Academy, ALOSH, NIOSH, and the new OSHA Training Center will help to put West Virginia in the forefront of the study and promotion of a safe, healthy workplace. June 22, 1994