Safety Materials

MNM Examination of Working Places

renewcomerLeave a comment
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.

MSHA Fire Alert

renewcomerLeave a comment

In the ten months since early September 2018, MSHA has documented nine equipment fires involving Hitachi excavators and shovels and Caterpillar haul trucks, front end loaders and dozers. On September 7, 2018, a miner received fatal burn injuries when a fire occurred on a haul truck and the manually-activated fire suppression system did not function when activated. The remaining eight equipment fires were all reported as non-injury.

Access MSHA’s alert here (pdf).

PLAN for Safe and Sound Week

renewcomerLeave a comment

Safe + Sound Week is a nationwide event being held August 12 – 18 that recognizes the successes of workplace health and safety programs. Successful safety and health programs can proactively identify and manage workplace hazards before they cause injury or illness, improving sustainability and the bottom line. Participating in Safe + Sound Week can help get your program started, energize an existing one, or provide a chance to recognize your safety successes. Click HERE for more. – OSHA

2018 MNM Fatalities Compiled

renewcomerLeave a comment

Each year I compile a pdf of all the fatalities into mnm and coal pdfs. (Starting with 2019 both will be in the same document since MSHA is combining them). I just completed the 2018 metal/nonmetal one. You can move from fatality to fatality with bookmarks that are built in or just search a word like “loader” and find all the references to that in all fatalities for the year. It is also posted in the Resources tab above where I’ll add some past years as I get time or requests.

2018 MNM Fatalities

New MSHA Mine Data Retrieval System

renewcomerLeave a comment

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.

GHS Pictogram Quiz

renewcomerLeave a comment
Clip from the NSC GHS pictogram game.

I’m continually surprised by how many workers in my class don’t know the GHS pictograms. Why is that an issue?

  1. They aren’t that difficult. There are only 9 (only 8 actually required by OSHA – the environmental one is optional) and many of them are familiar for decades.
  2. If they don’t know them your company is out of compliance. The deadline for the training was December 1, 2013, yes, 2013!
  3. Most importantly if they don’t understand the pictogram they probably don’t understand the hazard and don’t know how to safely handle the chemical. There are serious implications for their safety and the company’s bottom line.

National Safety Council has an interactive game to test their knowledge. You can have them play it online. You can see their score. Even though the program gets complimentary of any decent score, 100% is the only one that actually counts. You can refresh the page and do it over and over. Try it out here.

MSHA Changing How it Counts

renewcomer

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