to improve working conditions and practices in coal or other mines, and to prevent accidents and occupational diseases originating in the coal or other mining industry;

to develop new or improved methods of recovering persons in coal or other mines after an accident;

to develop new or improved means and methods of communication from the surface to the underground area of a coal or other mine;

to develop new or improved means and methods of reducing concentrations of respirable dust in the mine atmosphere of active workings of the coal or other mine;

to develop epidemiological information to (A) identify and define positive factors involved in occupational diseases of miners, (B) provide information on the incidence and prevalence of pneumoconiosis and other respiratory ailments of miners, and (C) improve mandatory health standards;

to develop techniques for the prevention and control of occupational diseases of miners, including tests for hypersusceptibility and early detection;

to evaluate the effect on bodily impairment and occupational disability of miners afflicted with an occupational disease;

to prepare and publish from time to time, reports on all significant aspects of occupational diseases of miners as well as on the medical aspects of injuries, other than diseases, which are revealed by the research carried on pursuant to this subsection;

to study the relationship between coal or other mine environments and occupational diseases of miners;

to develop new and improved underground equipment and other sources of power for such equipment which will provide greater safety;

to determine, upon the written request by any operator or authorized representative of miners, specifying with reasonable particularity the grounds upon which such request is made, whether any substance normally found in a coal or other mine has potentially toxic effects in the concentrations normally found in the coal or other mine or whether any physical agents or equipment found or used in a coal or other mine has potentially hazardous effects, and shall submit such determinations to both the operators and miners as soon as possible; and

for such other purposes as they deem necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter.