The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act (Mine Act)

U.S. Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) - United States

The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act was enacted by the U.S. Department of Labor to ensure the health and safety of mine workers. Mine operations are spontaneously inspected by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare at least once a year to compile safety statistics and obtain and disseminate information relating to health and safety conditions. Mines that are above ground or are non-coal producing are additionally inspected every two years for safety violations. Underground mines and mines producing coal are inspected for safety violations four times per year.

Management System and Data Management Implications

Civil penalties of the Act for safety non-compliance found during an inspection are steep. For every occurrence of a safety violation mine operators are fined $60, 000. If the infractions are not corrected within the mandated 90 days, an additional $5,500 per instance is levied. Operators could also be subject to jail time of up to five years.

Additional requirements include CFR 30 75.362(a)(2) which specifies that mine operators should designate one or more people to regularly check a mine's dust controls to ensure that they are working properly and meet the requirements of that mine's approved ventilation plan. In 1996, this definition was expanded to require inspections of dust controls within one hour of each shift change. If production needs to be halted for any reason, dust controls must also be retested to ensure they are working properly before production can resume.

These inspections are conducted to measure air quantities and velocities; water pressures and flow rates; ensuring that excessive leaking of water lines is not occurring. If there are leaks, the inspection ensures that the number of leaks and their orientations are documented. Inspections also give mine inspectors an opportunity to place ventilation and control devices for monitoring purposes. Under 75.363 of the Act, if levels of air particulates or other parameters are deemed hazardous to those working in the mine, the person conducting the inspection must document his/her findings.

In addition to the requirements of the Act, there is a voluntary incident reduction program offered by MSHA Technical Support, Applied Engineering Division (AED). Implemented in 2002, the goal of the program is to reduce mining accidents. Operators interested in participating ask their mining district for assistance, then the district requests AED assistance. Once operators commit to the process, their facilities undergo a year-long audit which includes: interviews with employees, consultations with the district and the operator's managers, review of statistics and accidents, review of the mine's safety culture and program, observance of work habits and mining processes, and a written report of findings and recommendations by AED. Mines involved in the program are visited quarterly for progress reports in regard to the recommendations made by AED in their initial report.

MSHA reports that only 20 coal mines, preparation plants or contractors have received assistance as part of this program. However, on average, participants have seen a 44 percent reduction occurrences that affected their nonfatal days lost (NFDL) rate.

All of these mandatory and voluntary regulations and processes require the mine operator to be organized and aware of the health and safety status of his/her workers. Data management programs can help by:

• Helping to track chemical and non-chemical agents in work areas and zones, employee jobs, processes, tasks, personal protective equipment and exposure controls
• Assisting in performing exposure assessments by allowing inspectors to define similar exposure groups (SEGs), define exposure profiles for each SEG and judge the acceptability of exposure profiles. Users can also track the calibration of testing equipment to ensure accurate sampling results.
• Allowing inspectors to analyze and communicate results to mine operators by generating user-configurable exposure notification reports for communicating sampling results.
• Recognizing and defining job hazards.
• Instituting safety processes for hazard reduction.
• Developing consistent and thorough job hazard analysis (JHA) auditing processes by attaching relevant documentation, photos and video files to show potential hazards; and recording all parties involved in JHAs, including those interviewed, observed, or otherwise concerned.
• Assigning and tracking tasks to completion, including those issued through an existing computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).

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