Guidelines for determining which mining deaths will be classified as work-related were unveiled yesterday by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration and almost immediately came under fire as "overly simplistic" and lacking independent oversight.

The guidelines represent the first formalized criteria for MSHA to define which deaths will be counted in yearly tallies, with the final decision made by a four-member Fatality Review Committee.

"Establishing this review committee should help MSHA ensure that fatal accidents are consistently counted and appropriately charged," said Richard Stickler, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health.

Mr. Stickler ordered the internal review of death determination criteria in early December, two days after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported apparent inconsistencies in how deaths are counted.

Critics charged that the agency had narrowed its definition of a work-related or "chargeable" death in recent years, excluding cases similar to ones that were counted before 2000, the Post-Gazette reported.

As a result, MSHA statistics showed yearly declines in coal mine fatalities prior to 2006 --prompting declarations that mining was safer than ever -- while the number of non-chargeable deaths increased.

Under the new "Fatal Injury Guideline Matrix," deaths will not be chargeable unless they result from mine activity, involve people authorized to be on the site, and are not attributable to natural causes like a heart attack, or involve suicide or homicide.

If questions arise, a final determination will be made by the review committee composed of top MSHA officials from program education and information resources, technical support, educational policy and development, and the agency's legal counsel.

Under the previous policy, committee members included the district manager where the death occurred and the coal or metal/non-metal program administrator.

While committee members will no longer be so closely connected to the incident they're investigating, United Mine Workers of America's top safety official, Dennis O'Dell, is still troubled by the all-MSHA lineup.

"If they don't want people to be leery about this, they have to go outside the agency to make this review committee credible," he said. "I think their intentions were good, but everybody knows the politics in the agency. They still work for the government and they still have to answer to the assistant secretary."

He also questioned the requirement that the person killed had to be authorized to be on the mine site, saying some mine operators may cite technicalities to claim they weren't authorized.

J. Davitt McAteer, who headed MSHA during the Clinton administration, said the guidelines are too simplistic and will exclude too many cases.

"What if a guy is lifting a roof support up and has a heart attack? How do you charge that? This doesn't take into account the subtleties and nuances that you have," he said.

"As the mining work force ages, we're going to have more heart attacks. Are we going to write them all off?" asked Mr. McAteer, who oversaw West Virginia's investigations into last year's mine deaths at the Sago and Aracoma mines.

"The guidelines should be applied in a way that improves the chances of preventing deaths in the future because that's the real mission of the agency."

In fact, the large majority of the non-chargeable deaths in recent years have been attributed to heart attacks, or natural causes, the Post-Gazette found. Because little public information is released about those deaths, it is difficult for those outside the agency to evaluate the circumstances.

One exception was the October 2004 death of Forrest Riley Sr., 54, at Consolidation Coal Co.'s Shoemaker Mine near Dallas, W.Va., which MSHA first counted, then removed from its list of work-related deaths.

Mr. Riley, a beltman, was pinned in his tractor cab after he backed over a pipe, which struck Mr. Riley on his left side. Co-workers had to use another tractor to extricate Mr. Riley, who was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

A medical examiner concluded that his heart attack "probably precipitated the accident" but added that his injuries "cannot be entirely excluded" as a contributory factor.

MSHA removed Mr. Riley from its list of chargeable deaths on Dec. 30, 2004, leaving a total of 55 "chargeable" deaths for coal and metal/non-metal mines that year -- one fewer death than the previous year, and the lowest annual tally in recent memory.

Under the new guidelines, Mr. Riley's death apparently still would not be considered chargeable because the medical examiner ruled his death was due to natural causes. MSHA spokesman Dirk Fillpot said the agency has no plans to review previous cases.

"That should have been a chargeable death," said Mr. McAteer. "The trauma relationship is clear; heart attacks are brought about by trauma. To deny that doesn't help the agency from preventing further accidents."