An introductory-level online course augments formal confined space training but is not meant to replace it.
The Savannah River Site's Area Closure Project successfully tested a commercially available laser scanning system that would aid in planning deactivation and decommissioning jobs, SRNL reports.
This year's conference season includes many exciting stops, starting with AAOHN's national conference in Atlanta. The National Safety Congress opens in Philadelphia just in time for Halloween.
The proposal would eliminate the potential POV procedure, which involves written notification that a potential POV exists at a particular mining operation. No longer would mine operators receive advanced warning.
There were more grain entrapments in 2010 than in any year since they started collecting data on entrapments in 1978, according to researchers at Purdue University.
The individual employees, safety managers, and companies represent a range of industries and hazard solutions, including highly successful first aid iPhone apps and an electrical engineer's contribution toward a national arc flash standard. Winners will be announced April 28.
Of the 71 mining fatalities reported, 23 of those victims were killed in surface mining accidents, while 48 miners died in underground mining accidents, 29 of whom were killed in the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in April.
OSHA issued willful citations alleging that Gerardi failed to properly protect workers from trench cave-ins, the result of four separate inspections conducted under the OSHA Trenching and Excavation Special Emphasis Program.
MSHA recently announced a proposal to revise its requirements for pre-shift, supplemental, on-shift, and weekly examinations. The proposed rule on "Examinations of Work Areas in Underground Coal Mines for Violations of Mandatory Health or Safety Standards" would require mine operators to take responsibility for conducting complete workplace examinations; correcting violations; and reviewing with mine examiners on a quarterly basis all citations and orders issued in areas where pre-shift, supplemental, on-shift, and weekly examinations are required.
MSHA recently announced that federal inspectors issued 250 citations, orders, and safeguards during special impact inspections conducted at 12 coal and 10 metal/nonmetal mine operations last month.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration announced recently that it successfully obtained a court order that imposes a number of requirements on Sullivan Granite Co. LLC, which operates Brown's Meadow Quarry in Franklin, Maine.
"We want to ensure that miners are protected from overexposure to harmful contaminants and mine operators have required safety and health programs in place to meet that objective," said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health.
Semiannual agendas published Monday in the Federal Register are later than usual. Those from the Labor Department's units are sparse.
Through a new safety initiative, MSHA is calling special attention to the potential dangers that shuttle cars and scoops in underground coal mines pose to miners. Between January 2000 and September 2010, nearly 800 miners have been injured and 16 killed in coal mine accidents involving shuttle cars and scoops. Three of those deaths occurred this year.
The deadline to comment on the 582-page document is April 4, 2011, and government safety agencies are urging employers and workers to participate as Australia moves toward harmonized regulations.
"The size of these proposed fines reflects the gravity of these hazards and the fact that two of the employers knew cave-in protection and a ladder were required, yet refused to provide these vital safeguards," said Rosemarie Ohar, OSHA's New Hampshire area director.
OSHA filed 28 citations in all against U.S. Minerals LLC of Dyer, Ind. and said violations have been found at four of its facilities.
The Jan. 25-26 event at Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center will cover the principal causes of damage to underground utilities from excavation projects.
MSHA has launched the second phase of an outreach and enforcement program designed to strengthen efforts to prevent mining fatalities. "Rules to Live By II: Preventing Catastrophic Accidents" was developed from data gathered by reviewing accidents that resulted in five or more fatalities, as well as from incidents caused by fires or explosions that had the potential to result in more fatalities.
The first of the public hearings will be in West Virginia on Dec. 7. The hearings are about the proposed rule published Oct. 19.