In 2013, 42 miners died in work-related accidents at the nation's mines, an increase of six over last year. Of those fatalities, 20 were in coal mining and 22 were in metal/nonmetal mining, compared with 20 and 16, respectively, in 2012.

Despite the government shutdown the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) did manage to conduct special impact inspections at nine mines during October that resulted in 120 citations and ten orders being issued.

Among the many items on the federal government’s recently-released fall regulatory agenda are nine belonging to the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Two of them are in the final stage of rulemaking.

Nine U.S. miners lost their lives in work-related accidents from July 1 to Sept. 30 – two fewer than for the third quarter of 2012. Those figures were among the information released recently by the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

Human error is often cited as the main cause for up to 80 percent of all incidents and accidents in complex high-risk systems that exist in the aviation, petrochemical, healthcare, construction, mining, and nuclear power industries, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (www.nerc.com).

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration’s inspectors issued 213 citations, 23 orders and one safeguard during special impact inspections conducted at nine coal mines and five metal/nonmetal mines last month.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has put three mining operations on notice of a pattern of violations of mandatory health or safety standards under Section 104(e) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977.

An editorial in the New York Times last week praised the work of federal prosecutors in West Virginia for their pursuit of justice in their investigation into the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine tragedy. Those prosecutors deserve the praise. However, the editorial misses an important point.

Industrial Scientific, the leading provider of Gas Detection as a Service, announced today the availability of the MX6 Refuge Chamber Kit for use in monitoring hazardous gases inside and outside of mine refuge chambers during emergency situations.