News

MNM Examination of Working Places

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Click here to download a sample workplace exam form with the updated rule on it.

On September 30, 2019 MSHA published the latest revision of the MNM Examination of Working Places rule which changes the rule back to the originally published rule of January 23, 2017. A court ruled that changes to the published rule between then and when it went into effect in June of 2018 lessened the protection of the original rule which violates the “no-less protection” requirement of 101(a)(9) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977.

The reinstated rule goes into effect immediately and says:

(a) A competent person designated by the operator shall examine each working place at least once each shift before miners begin work in that place, for conditions that may adversely affect safety or health.

(1) The operator shall promptly notify miners in any affected areas of any conditions found that may adversely affect safety or health and promptly initiate appropriate action to correct such conditions.

(2) Conditions noted by the person conducting the examination that may present an imminent danger shall be brought to the immediate attention of the operator who shall withdraw all persons from the area affected (except persons referred to in section 104(c) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977) until the danger is abated.

(b) A record of each examination shall be made before the end of the shift for which the examination was conducted. The record shall contain the name of the person conducting the examination; date of the examination; location of all areas examined; and description of each condition found that may adversely affect the safety or health of miners.

(c) When a condition that may adversely affect safety or health is corrected, the examination record shall include, or be supplemented to include, the date of the corrective action.

(d) The operator shall maintain the examination records for at least one year, make the records available for inspection by authorized representatives of the Secretary and the representatives of miners, and provide these representatives a copy on request.

50th Anniversary of 1st Moon Landing

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I couldn’t help but stick a post in here celebrating the landing of Apollo 11 on the Moon this past weekend. Is it mining related? I think the graphic, provided by NASA, confirms that it is. In fact over the course of the Apollo landings nearly a half ton of rocks were brought back to be studied. They provided much information to help us understand the Moon and our Solar System. There’s even more to be discovered as indicated in this recent article. Well done Buzz, Neil, and Mike.

Sample collecting on this scale came later in the Apollo flights.

New MSHA Mine Data Retrieval System

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As someone who used the old system often I’ll hold judgement on the new until I’ve used it awhile or at least until it works. That’s assuming it’s not doing what it’s supposed to now because when I enter my own ID I get someone else’s information or none at all depending on what report I ask for. Either way, if you use this information you may want to study the manual, yes unlike most software that you just intuitively click on what you’d like to see, you better study this one. It’s here.

MSHA Changing How it Counts

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Lost and Confused SignpostI rarely if ever have used this platform to express an opinon, preferring to have the site just report facts, but I have a fact to report that I definitely have an opinion on and so, here it is.

MSHA is changing how it counts fatalities. It’s seemingly part of what the Assistant Secretary said at TRAM last October about his desire to “Blur” the lines between Metal-Nonmetal and Coal. As a trainer who does his best to satisfy MSHA by providing relevent material it’s not only helpful but necessary to divide the two. The rules are different and miners most often are going into just one type of mine, not both.

The announcement appears on the MSHA web page that fatalities not be seperated and indeed fatalities number one and two occured in coal mines and three and four were in metal-nonmetal mines. Without a careful counting as the year goes on it will be difficult to compare to previous years or tell how the very different industries are doing. Other helpful training materials that MSHA has provided in the past to help us understand where we are even within the various industries of metal-nonmetal have disappeared. Secretary Zatezalo rightly said last October that as we approach zero fatalities we have to change our approach to continue to make advances, but blurring lines and failing to interpret and publish data isn’t a change in the right direction. If anything these changes will simply make it more difficult to understand where we are and if we don’t know that we certainly can’t tell where we’re going.

We will continue to seperate the industries here even in the title to fatalities, referencing them both by MSHA’s fatality number and numbering them by Metal Nonmetal and Coal. You can also select the Categories and click on tags on the right side of the page to further select industries. I started this page to assist in my own training material design. If there’s any way I can help in yours by interpreting data here let me know. MSHA doesn’t seem to be doing it much anymore.

-Randy

20th Professional Development Mine Safety Seminar for Supervisors

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pennstateminerThe Penn State Miner Training Program, in cooperation with government and industry sponsors, is hosting a seminar and a series of professional development workshops on January 20th and 21st, 2016 at the Holiday Inn Conference Center—Lehigh Valley. The objective of the seminar and the workshops is to enhance the safety management skills of supervisors.

View the flyer here. (pdf)

Holiday Greetings

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Fun house

We’d like to be the first to wish you holiday greetings, but of course we’d have to have done that in August or something like that. 😉 Seriously, we know we’re not the first, but don’t want to be the last either, so be safe. No time is more precious than today whether it’s before a holiday or not. We want to remind you of that here at Complete Safety Solutions. Give the gift of yourself and be sure to do your work the way you know it’s supposed to be done, safely. In spite of a bad start, it looks like mining may end up with at least a better year than last year when it comes to fatalities. Still, too many homes are missing a loved-one this season that they shouldn’t have had to miss. It’s hard to say how we can prevent all mining related deaths, but it’s very simple to prevent the next one. Do your share and work safely.

We wish the best of everything. Enjoy the holidays.

Randy and Jolene

Download MSHA’s Holiday Alert here. (pdf)