miners | ISHN

MSHA recounts safety efforts taken in 2019

January 28, 2020

Last year, the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) focus was largely on responding strategically to spikes in particular causes of mining accidents. That’s according to Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health David Zatezalo, who reviews the agency’s 2019 activity in a post on the U.S. Department of Labor blog.

A mining disaster that led to safety changes

"Mining is a hazardous profession"

November 20, 2019

Fifty-one years ago today, a massive explosion killed 78 coal miners in West Virginia and led to significant changes in mining safety through the passage of the 1969 Coal Mine Safety and Health Act. On Sunday, family members of the workers who perished in the Farmington Mine disaster and coal miners and their families gathered in Marion County for a solemn ceremony that has taken place every year for more than a half a century.

Mining safety gets $250K boost

October 1, 2018

The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration has awarded $250,000 to four organizations to develop and conduct training programs that support the recognition and prevention of safety and health hazards in underground mines.

Black lung on the rise since 2000

July 27, 2018

After reaching a low point in the late 1990s, the national prevalence of coal worker’s pneumoconiosis (black lung) in miners with 25 years or more of tenure now exceeds 10 percent and in some areas is much higher than that, according to a study published in the American Public Health Association’s American Journal of Public Health.

MSHA announces results of October impact inspections

December 1, 2015

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says federal inspectors issued 231 citations and seven orders during special impact inspections at 11 coal mines and five metal and nonmetal mines in October.

A boost for mine rescue in the Midwest

Joseph A. Main

September 22, 2015

Miners need to know that when it comes to mine rescue and response in our nation, we’ve got your back. As part of our efforts to improve mine rescue capabilities throughout the U.S., the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has opened a new mine rescue station in Madisonville, Kentucky, to serve mining operations in the Midwest in the event of a mine emergency.

MSHA announces results of May impact inspections

July 1, 2014

Federal inspectors for the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration issued 172 citations, 21 orders and two safeguards during special impact inspections conducted at 10 coal mines and two metal and nonmetal mines in May.

A busy April for MSHA inspectors

June 12, 2014

Among the 16 special impact inspections conducted by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in April was one at the Alcoa World Alumina LLC's Bayer Alumina Plant in Calhoun County, Texas, which resulted in 27 citations and seven orders.

Miners’ widows target MSHA with lawsuit

Aracoma Coal mine had "useless" fire hose, inadequate ventilation

February 8, 2013

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has cleared the way for two miners’ widows to pursue a lawsuit against the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) for its admitted failure to inspect and enforce safety regulations at the Aracoma Coal Company’s Alma Mine #1 in that state.

MSHA finds fewer violations, but frequent violators persist

One mine operator cited 35 times in two years for same hazard

January 28, 2013

December impact inspections by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) found one of the lowest number of violations to date, but Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health said: "We still see some mines that fail to address recurring problems that put miners at risk."