OSHA backs down from proposed changes to its On-Site Consultation Program, good news about U.S. mining fatality rates and reasons why some construction workers don’t report injuries are among the top EHS-related stories featured this week on ISHN.com:

Figures released Wednesday by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) revealed that 2012 had the lowest fatality and injury rates in the history of U.S. mining, along with the lowest rate of contractor fatalities since the agency began calculating those rates in 1983.

An administrative law judge has ruled that a Madisonville, Ky., mining company violated the anti-discrimination provisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 when it sued a miner for filing a discrimination complaint with the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) following his job termination.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently upheld a decision that the failure to maintain emergency lifelines in a manner for miners to use effectively is a significant and substantial violation of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, regardless of the likelihood of a mine emergency actually occurring at the time of the violation.

An engineer in Scotland who was fired after being injured on the job has been awarded £70,000 (about $100,000) by a court in Edinburgh. David Hynds suffered a spinal injury when a one ton cutting tool fell on him, trapping him between a girder support and the ground.

Capital Safety, home of the DBI-SALA® and PROTECTA® brands of fall protection equipment, introduces the Saflok® Hybrid Mining Swivel Anchor and the Saflok® Mining Bolt Anchor, two anchorage connectors designed to offer the best underground protection for workers employed in mining or tunneling applications.

NIOSH research related to improved illumination in underground mines could be a key to reducing the second leading accident class of nonfatal lost-time injuries—slips, trips, and falls.