Arlington, VA — As a “troubling trend” of miner loss of life continues, Mine Safety and Health Administration head Chris Williamson says the agency “is not going to sit by and watch the number grow.”
Speaking throughout an April 26 convention name for agency stakeholders, Williamson emphasised a number of MSHA initiatives amid a latest rise in miner deaths. As of April 25, MSHA had recorded 17 trade fatalities this yr – greater than half of the 29 noticed by the agency in 2022.
Williamson identified the elevated frequency with which MSHA has issued security alerts and left on the desk “additional appropriate enforcement, if necessary.” The administrator additionally mentioned his April 14 letter to mining stakeholders, in which he introduced the inaugural “Stand Down to Save Lives” day on May 17 in an effort to increase consciousness and stop further deaths in the trade.
“There’s been a troubling number of fatalities so far this year,” Williamson stated, “and I’m really hopeful and I know a lot of people on this call are going to help us work on getting that number lower.”
MSHA recorded 14 trade fatalities from Jan. 26 to April 26. Among these, 12 concerned staff with two years or much less expertise on the mine. Eight of the miners had lower than two years’ expertise on the exercise they have been performing on the time of the incident.
Although MSHA requires employee coaching, Marcus Smith, chief of the agency’s Accident Investigations Division, stated that poor coaching “stands out to us frequently” throughout fatality investigations.
MSHA additionally discovered 9 situations in which mine operators both didn’t conduct a required office examination or the examination was deemed insufficient.
Williamson additionally addressed MSHA’s long-awaited proposed rule on respirable crystalline silica. The April goal date listed on the Department of Labor’s Fall 2022 regulatory agenda received’t be met, because the proposal stays underneath the interagency assessment course of. “We’ll have more to say, more to share on that, hopefully, at some point in the near future,” Williamson stated, “but that’s where it’s at. Obviously, we’ll have a lot to talk about once the proposed rule comes out. And really, as I’ve said over and over again, I want the entire mining community to read it and provide comment, and we’ll take those seriously as we continue to work through the rulemaking process.”
