The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says it has completed a major upgrade to its primary data system that will increase functionality and allow for more intuitive navigation.
The agency’s Mine Data Retrieval System (MDRS) enables operators monitor their compliance with MSHA regulations. The system provides access to comprehensive mine location, status, ownership, employment, production, accident/inspection/violations history, and health sampling data.
Teenage health care worker regulation change prompted calls for review
February 1, 2019
The U.S. Department of Labor is investigating whether the U.S. Department of Labor under the Trump administration is following proper procedures when making regulatory changes to worker safety regulations.
In a letter to Congressional Democrats, who’d requested an audit of the DOL’s rulemaking process, DOL Inspector General Scott S. Dahl said a review of the “integrity of the rulemaking process” at OSHA was already underway.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) reports that 27 mining fatalities occurred in 2018 - the second lowest number ever recorded.
Eighteen fatalities occurred at surface operations; nine occurred in underground mines.
One in five working coal miners in central Appalachia who have worked at least 25 years now suffer from the coal miners' disease black lung. That's the finding from the latest study tracking an epidemic of the incurable and fatal sickness.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has issued a Request for Information (RFI) on a Retrospective Study of the final rule entitled "Lowering Miners' Exposure to Respirable Coal Mine Dust, Including Continuous Personal Dust Monitors" in the Federal Register.
Amy Chambers, MS, is a research engineer working in the NIOSH Spokane Mining Research Division. She joined NIOSH in July 2015.
Ms. Chambers seeks to ensure underground miners have a stable roof to work under. With a background in metallurgy, she is the lead engineer for corrosion research as part of a project to examine ground control (i.e., controlling the ground above an underground mine workspace) in metal mines.
Mine operators with safety violations have failed to pay millions of dollars they owe in penalties – a state of affairs David G. Zatezalo calls “unacceptable.” In a recent op-ed piece in The Intelligencer. Wheeling News-Register, Zatezalo said uncollected fines combined with continued violations “show disregard for the law and our nation’s miners.
Black Lung is Back: After almost being eradicated in the late 1990, black lung is back, with a vengeance. Epidemiologists at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health say they’ve identified the largest cluster of advanced black lung disease ever reported, according to an NPR story. “When I first implemented this clinic back in 1990, you would see … five [to] seven … PMF cases” a year, says Ron Carson, who directs Stone Mountain’s black lung program.
Earlier this week, President Trump submitted his Fiscal Year 2019 budget proposal. This is his second budget proposal, and like the first, although it left OSHA’s budget fairly flat, it once again proposes to slash or eliminate important safety and health programs and agencies.
It has been a year since Donald Trump took office. Despite promising to be a friend of workers, Trump has spent much of his first year making our workplaces less safe.
AFL-CIO Director of Safety and Health Peg Seminario described Trump's actions: