MSHA Holds Mining Symposium
MSHA’s Joseph Main discusses low injury rates, low fatality rates and more
Joseph Main, the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, spoke at a West Virginia Coal Association Mining Symposium regarding actions taken by MSHA over the past year to improve health and safety, according to a press release from MSHA. Main particularly praised the decline in fatality and injury rates over the last year.
In addition to discussing the path of improvement mine safety has been on, Main discussed the reduction in “the number of chronic violators and better compliance with mine safety and health standards,” according to the press release. He also pointed out that the most important achievement over the last year was that the industry had the lowest fatality and injury rates in the history of mining in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Over the last year, the agency aided in the creation of a national organization to provide guidance on mine rescue, continued taking action to help reduce black lung, completed all of its corrective actions in response to the 100 recommendations made by the internal review of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster, and filed more discrimination cases than in any year on behalf of miners who had been retaliated against by their employers for making hazardous condition complaints.