Could better breathing devices and another escape route have saved the lives of the 12 coal miners killed in Tallmansville, West Virginia? We'll never know, because the Bush administration dumped both safety proposals shortly after taking office.

Early Wednesday, the bodies of the dead miners were recovered from the Sago mine, operated by the International Coal Group. A 13th man was rescued and remains hospitalized in critical condition. After an explosion shook the mine, lethal carbon monoxide was measured at three times the levels a person can safely breathe for a maximum of 15 minutes before succumbing.

During the Clinton administration, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) proposed a rule for breathing devices for underground miners, to let them breathe when the carbon monoxide escalates, as it did in Sago.

"Self-contained self-rescuers (SCSRs) are closed-circuit breathing apparatuses that provide a source of oxygen and greatly increase a miner's chance of surviving a mine emergency involving an irrespirable atmosphere," MSHA said then. It said mine owners reported "recent experiences with SCSRs which did not function properly or were not donned properly, rendering them ineffective."

MSHA said it was time to update the rule, requiring more-frequent replacement of SCSRs and better training. But in December 2001, the Bush administration dumped the proposal, citing "resource constraints and changing safety and health regulatory priorities."

For that reason, the same day, it dumped another Clinton proposal that would have required all mines to have two separate surface exits.

In the past two years, federal MSHA inspectors cited the Sago mine more than 270 times for safety violations. Many were serious -- such as collapsing roofs, faulty tunnel supports, inadequate ventilation and dangerous accumulation of flammable coal dust.

According to the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), the number of safety violations and incidence of injuries at Sago mine is higher than average. The mine was cited for failing to properly enact a "mine ventilation plan" nine times in the past year, and cited seven times for failing to properly conduct a "pre-shift examination."

"The mine workers look at the pre-shift examination as one of the most important activities that the mine operator has got to perform," said Tim Baker, deputy administrator for health and safety at the UMWA. "We look at that as an absolutely crucial first step of any mining operation."

Workers at the Sago mine are not represented by a union.

Noting that none of the fines issued at Sago approached the current maximum of $60,000, Baker said that the fines levied didn?t match the seriousness of the violation. The highest proposed fine issued by the government last year was $440 for one of the ventilation violations. Many of the violations prompted $60 fines.

"If I go down the street in Washington, D.C., at 10 mph over the speed limit, I'm going to get much higher fine than that," Baker said.

Lawmakers were critical of the MSHA regulatory philosophy under the Bush administration which calls for "partnerships" between mining companies and the MSHA rather than financial penalties and sanctions.

"MSHA's clear track record under Bush of undermining safety enforcement and going easy on industry cronies has had tragic consequences for the families of coal miners in Sago and elsewhere," said Rep. Major R. Owens, D-N.Y., senior Democrat on the workforce protections subcommittee. Rep. George Miller, D-CA, joined Owens in calling for Congressional hearings of mine safety.

Miller said MHSA has been downsized by 170 positions since 2001 and Congress has cut MSHA's funding by $4.9 million. He said the Bush administration has appointed numerous officials to the agency who have close ties to the mining industry and who have rolled back a number of regulations aimed at improving mine worker safety.

Compiled by Workday Minnesota editor Barb Kucera from reports written by Press Associates, Inc., news service and the International Association of Machinists' i-mail

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