Mr. Byron Calame
Public Editor
New York Times

Dear Mr. Calame:

Reading my Times RSS feed today, I noticed an editorial about mining: “Weakening the Fight for Mine Safety.”

I read it with interest, and no small astonishment.

From reading the article, you’d assume that miners today faced conditions unprecedented in modern times, and that hazard and death were increasing rapidly under the Bush Administration.

I have many differences with the Administration – many of them detailed on my blog at www.windsofchange.net – but here I’m just puzzled.

Because when I looked into it, I discovered that death and injury rates during the Bush Administration were lower than those during the Clinton Administration.

I blogged about it here.

http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/008199.php

I went and updated my information – this was from March, 2006 – and got this result:

The average number of deaths from Jan 1993 – Dec 2000 was 89.37.

The average number of deaths from Jan 2001 – Oct 2006 was 62.33.

This took me a total of ten minutes, using publicly accessible records. I’d expect your institution to do better.

I believe in regulation – the air I breathe here in Los Angeles is tolerable because of it. But I also believe in honesty, and in looking at facts before I draw conclusions.

Over to you…

Marc Danziger