CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Labor Department official details new coal dust rule

Dominion Post (Morgantown, WV) - 4/24/2014

April 24--Joe Main, U.S. Department of Labor assistant secretary for Mine Safety and Health, outlined Labor's new 991-page coal dust rule to the audience at NIOSH on Wednesday in Morgantown.

A Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) release accompanying the announcement ceremony explains black lung disease and summarizes Main's points.

Prolonged exposure to respirable (breatheable) coal mine dust causes lung diseases, such as coal workers' pneumoconiosis, emphysema and progressive massive fibrosis," MSHA said. "These diseases, collectively referred to as black lung, can lead to permanent disability and death."

The new rule is called "Lowering Miners' Exposure to Respirable Coal Mine Dust, Including Continuous Personal Dust Monitors." It was first proposed in October 2010, subject to public comment, revised and finalized. The rule goes into effect Aug. 1, with some components phased in during the following two years.

Broadly, it:

Lowers levels of miners' exposure to respirable coal mine dust and further reduces dust exposure by closing loopholes and improving sampling practices to better reflect actual working conditions and protect all miners from overexposures.

Increases sampling and makes use of cuttingedge technology developed for the mining environment to provide real-time information about dust levels, allowing miners and operators to identify problems and make necessary adjustments instead of letting overexposures languish; also requires immediate corrective action when a sample finds an excessive concentration of dust.

Has a phase-in over a two-year period to give the industry time to adjust to the new requirements, acquire monitoring equipment and obtain compliance assistance from MSHA.

More specifically, the rule:

Reduces the overall dust standard from 2.0 to 1.5 milligrams per cubic meter of air and cuts in half the standard from 1.0 to 0.5 for certain mine entries and miners with pneumoconiosis.

Requires immediate action when dust levels are high instead of allowing days or weeks of miners' exposure to unhealthy dust.

Requires more frequent sampling of areas known to have relatively high dust levels, such as those closest to the production area.

Changes the method of averaging dust samples, which previously allowed miners on some shifts to be exposed to levels above the standard.

Requires sampling for the full shift a miner works to ensure protection for all working hours, rather than stopping measurement after eight hours, as under the previous requirement.

Requires that, for MSHA-collected samples, MSHA will issue a citation for any single, full-shift sample at or exceeding the citation level.

Requires dust samples to be taken when mines are operating at 80 percent of production, as opposed to the previous 50 percent requirement, so that samples are more representative of actual working conditions.

Requires mine operators to conduct thorough on-shift examinations of dust controls and verify controls with written certification.

Improves medical surveillance of miners. That includes, Main said, expanding medical observation program to surface mines and including lung function testing for all miners.

MSHA will convene a stakeholder meeting at MSHA Headquarters in Arlington, Va., today to highlight the major provisions of the rule, its new requirements and effective dates. MSHA also will hold field seminars in coal mining regions to provide a comprehensive review of the new requirements.

A complete schedule of field seminars and a copy of the final rule is available at msha.gov/endblacklung/.

___

(c)2014 The Dominion Post (Morgantown, W.Va.)

Visit The Dominion Post (Morgantown, W.Va.) at www.dominionpost.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services

Nationwide News