MSHA Regulations

MSHA Health Alert: Respirable Crystalline Silica

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On April 18, 2024, MSHA issued its final rule, Lowering Miners’ Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica and Improving Respiratory Protection, to reduce miner exposures to respirable crystalline silica and improve respiratory protection for all airborne hazards. Some updated resources appear below.

Important Dates:

  • The final rule will take effect on June 17, 2024.
  • Coal mine operators are required to be compliant by April 14, 2025
  • MNM mine operators are required to be compliant by April 8, 2026

The Final Rule:

  • Establishes a uniform permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 50 micrograms per cubicmeter of air (μg/m3) and action level of 25 μg/m3 for all mines.
  • Uniform requirements for monitoring and controlling respirable crystalline silicaRequires medical surveillance at MNM mines, modeled after existing requirements forcoal mines.
  • Updates the existing respiratory protection requirements to the ASTM F3387-19Standard.

Resources

Final Rule and Plan Templates for Surface Mobile Equipment Safety

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This Final Rule became effective in January and will be enforced starting July 17, 2024. It requires all operators and many if not most contractors to:

  • develop a written Mobile Equipment Safety Program,
  • appoint at least one responsible person to evaluate and update the program at least once a year,
  • identify current and emerging technology that would be feasible to use,
  • and more.

The Final Rule is here, and templates and other resources here.

Silica Rule Proposed Change

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The U.S. Department of Labor on June 30 announced a proposal by its Mine Safety and Health Administration to amend current federal standards to better protect the nation’s miners from health hazards related to exposure to respirable crystalline silica, or silica dust. The proposed rule change will ensure miners have at least the same level of protections as workers in other industries.

Click here for MSHA Silica Rulemaking page with links to proposed rule.

Proposed Mobile Powered Haulage Rule

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DOL – MSHA announced a proposed rule to require mine operators employing six or more miners to develop a written safety program for mobile and powered haulage equipment (excluding belt conveyors) at surface mines and surface areas of underground mines. This proposed rule is one of several actions MSHA has taken to reduce fatal and nonfatal injuries involving surface mobile equipment used at mines and to improve safety and health.

[photo: MSHA Powered Haulage Initiative]

Under the proposed rule, mine operators would implement a written safety program including actions to identify hazards and risks to reduce accidents, injuries and fatalities related to surface mobile equipment. Mine operators would have the flexibility to devise a safety program for their specific mining conditions and operations. In addition, MSHA would encourage its state grantees to provide training to address hazards and risks involving surface mobile equipment in small mining operations.

Comments must be submitted by Nov. 8, 2021. 

Read or Download the Proposed Rule in the Federal Register (pdf).

Whistleblower Protections

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No single thing would reduce injuries and fatalities in the workplace more than if all workers would refuse to perform unsafe actions. I’m convinced that sometimes workers are convinced by pressure from their companies or peers to do so. Other times they voluntarily do so because they mistakenly think it is the only way to accomplish the task. In the end workers doing things they know to be unsafe is often deadly. The best tool provided to each and every worker is the ability to request enforcement inspections from federal and state agencies and flatly refuse to participate without fear of reprisal as is provided under whistleblower protections. In mines we refer to the rights and responsibilities of miners, but this protection is provided in many areas. July 30 was Whistleblower Protection day and a video by Department of Labor Secretary Walsh and links to more information are provided here. – Randy

OSHA Guidance on Returning to Work

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OSHA has a guide available for employers or employees to assist them in assessing the workplace and instituting the appropriate controls to make the return safe. It “focuses on the need for employers to develop and implement strategies for basic hygiene (e.g., hand hygiene, cleaning and disinfection), social distancing, identification and isolation of sick employees, workplace controls and flexibilities, and employee training.”

Many areas have done a poor job of opening up, either reducing controls before evidence indicated or failing to continue with controls like physical distancing or the wearing of face masks which should continue until a vaccine is available and widely administered. Remember, under OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements, COVID-19 is a recordable illness, and employers are responsible for recording cases of COVID-19 that have evidence of being contracted at work.

Download Guidance Document 4045-06 2020 here. (pdf)

Going Back to Work???

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OSHA has been working on ways before the pandemic to get the Whistleblower Protection Program out to workers who don’t understand they have this important freedom. It’s even more critical now. Click on the image above for more or click HERE to see the MSHA version. Note that protecting one another’s health is the same as protection from other hazards.

There’s also good information on the Department of Labor site explaining what to do in just about any workplace to protect all involved from Corona virus here.

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.

Reminder to Report Your Quarterly Mining Hours

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This is a friendly reminder to report your hours for January – March. If you don’t report them by today some inspector is bound to ask to see them and will issue you a fine. It’s easy to report them online… BUT WAIT! The MSHA site is down AGAIN for maintenance! It was down 5 days in February. Why can’t these guys keep the lights on. I have NEVER discovered any other site down for maintenance. I hope you don’t have to look up a number to report a serious accident or anything. If you do and they say you took too long to call or your quarterlies were filed late just show them this..

What I saw when I went to file my quarterly MSHA report.

Proposed Rule Change for Workplace Exams

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jmain-reformattedToday MSHA held a briefing to present their proposed rule change for Workplace Examinations in Metal-Nonmetal. My preliminary assessment is that it makes the following changes:

  • Examinations will be required at the START of each shift. Yes, I’ve said this in Refresher classes. It’s silly, but the current rule just says that it’s required during each shift. No problem here. If you’re doing it effectively now you’re already doing it at the start of the shift.
  • Examination records must include hazards found and corrections made. This is the stickiest of things to include in an MSHA required report, but again an important part of a good safety examination process. Joe Main dodged the question of how MSHA Inspectors may or may not use these records to write citations based on the hazards recorded by iterating that this was a briefing and such questions were more correctly addressed during the 90 day comment period to commence tomorrow.
  • Examination records must be available to miners and miner representatives. While this  isn’t included in the current rule again, an effective program certainly has to warn the workers who would be exposed to the hazard or even a corrected hazard.

Check out the MSHA FACT SHEET here.