Winter months can bring drastic changes to the stability of highwalls due to freezing and thawing. Water accumulates in crevices of rocks and then freezes. The ice acts as a wedge to expand the crevice opening. The ice thaws and the cycle begins again which in turn compromises the stability of the highwall that can result in highwall failure.
MSHA has issued a Safety Alert that can easily be printed out and posted or used in a toolbox talk.
Click here for: MSHA Safety Alert: Highwall Stability
The annual Winter Alert is ON! “Conditions at underground and surface coal mines can change dramatically during the winter months,” said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. “We must be ever mindful of the seasonal changes that can affect our work environments.”
Posters, decals, and a PowerPoint presentation focus on some underground issues, but a printable poster for surface is also available on the MSHA web site at http://www.msha.gov/FocusOn/WinterAlert2010/WinterAlert2010homepage.asp. Check it out!
On January 19th and 20th, 2011 the Penn State Miner Training Program will host the 15th Professional Development Mine Safety Seminar for Supervisors at the Holiday Inn Conference Center — Lehigh Valley. The seminar, co-sponsored by industry and government stakeholders, is the premier opportunity of the year to enhance the safety management skills of front-line supervisory personnel.
Check it out with others by clicking on the Events tab above, or…
Click here for: Seminar Web Site with Program and Registration (html), Brochure (pdf).
I know you’re reading this. You’re checking SafeMiners.com out. Perhaps you’ve been here several times, but you haven’t commented yet. Well, at least you haven’t left a comment after one of the posts. It’s simple. You just click on the comment link under whichever post you’d like to comment on.
Now it’s rewarding too! I’m going to randomly choose a comment from those posted by the end of the year and send the winner a multi-tool like the one pictured. That’s it. Comments must be relevant and kind, but may be supportive or critical of the post. Otherwise, they are removed anyway. Try it out. You’ve got nothing to lose and a neat little tool to win!
If you need help check out the new User’s Guide under the ABOUT tab.
Well, the presentations haven’t begun, but the networking and sharing information began with Mine Safety folks from all over the country arriving yesterday. Breakfast this morning was a gathering of old friends and the meeting of new with hundreds more yet to arrive. Be sure to stay tuned because there are sure to be some great resources I find and post here to share along with my own presentation.
Also stay tuned. In another day or two I’m kicking off a competition to encourage folks make comments on these pages. I know you visit. Now it’s your turn to add to the site by leaving a comment. Don’t wait. Comments made starting today will be entered into a drawing for a prize. Details will follow.
MSHA will be holding public meetings to “gather information about effective, comprehensive safety and health management programs at mines”. There will be three of them. It amazes yours truly that two of the three are during TRAM, an event in MSHA’s own Mine Safety Academy in West Virginia that attracts the best mine safety professionals from around the country. While it’s possible there will be the gathering of such information there for MSHA as well it is strange and untimely that MSHA officially seems to have ignored it’s own event as a wonderful opportunity to acquire this information. Certainly there are those who don’t attend the event who have important things to add to the discussion it seems strange to remove the hundreds who will attend TRAM from participating.
Below is a link to the notice in the Federal Register. Yes, I read those boring things daily. Information is provided there about the events, their intent to use the information to “develop a proposed rule for Safety and Health Management Programs for mines which will allow miners and operators to be proactive in their approach to health and safety”, and instructions on how to comment.
Click here for: Federal Register Notice
OSHA announced on 7/28/10 that it is issuing a new rule addressing the use of cranes and derricks in construction, which will replace a decades-old standard. Approximately 267,000 construction, crane rental and crane certification establishments employing about 4.8 million workers will be affected by the new rule.
The previous rule, which dated back to 1971, was based on 40-year-old standards. Stakeholders from the construction industry recognized the need to update the safety requirements, methods and practices for cranes and derricks, and to incorporate technological advances in order to provide improved protection for those who work on and around cranes and derricks.
Click here for: OSHA Cranes and Derricks Web Site (web)
MSHA’s Approval & Certification Center (A&CC) Customer Service Newsletter provides information of general interest to equipment manufacturers and others involved in the mining community. It is published twice yearly – in January and July.
The July issue is now available.
Click here for: July 2010 Newsletter (pdf)
Hey look up. Right at the top of this web page. I’ve added a new tab for Events. Here you’ll find great events like workshops, seminars, and other special events to increase your knowledge of what it takes to be safe and network with other safety professionals and like-minded folk.
Check it out. I’ll keep posting good stuff there and if you have your own non-commercial event to publicize let me know. Click on the Contact Me tab to do that.
Thanks to John Henderson, the Program Manager at the Texas Mine Safety and Health Program at the University of Texas at Austin for pointing me to some great resources on their site. I’ll be posting them on the Resources page as well as integrating some right into the blog. For example, they translate the MSHA MNM Fatalgrams into Spanish. It’s a great resource if you have any workers who’s native language is Spanish.
You can click here to access their web page and also watch for them with the links that follow the Fatalgrams that are posted here such as Fatality #1 and Fatality #2 from this year. The links from the fatality will, like the links to investigations, etc., be posted as soon as they are available.