In late 2019, a plant electrician with 15 years of mining experience was electrocuted when he contacted an energized connection of a 4,160 VAC electrical circuit. Two more mining fatalities by electrocution have occurred since. The electrocution deaths prompted the MSHA to issue a safety alert.
As deaths in coal mines rise, President Trump last Friday nominated retired coal mining executive David Zatezalo to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
‘Brookwood-Sago’ grants honor 25 fallen Alabama, West Virginia miners
February 22, 2017
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has announced the availability of up to $1 million in grants for education and training programs to help identify, avoid and prevent unsafe working conditions in and around the nation’s mines.
25 miners died in work-related accidents last year
January 6, 2017
Preliminary data released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) indicate that in 2016, 25 miners died in work-related accidents at the nation’s mines – down from 29 in 2015. The figure represents the lowest number of mining deaths ever recorded and only the second year that mining deaths dropped below 30.
As an 11-year veteran of the Mine Safety and Health Administration and a member of MSHA’s Mine Emergency Unit since 2007, I have responded to a number of mine fires and explosions around the country, the most disastrous being the Upper Big Branch blast in 2010 that killed 29 coal miners.
The National Mine Health and Safety Academy is celebrating its 40th birthday today with a ceremony in Beaver, West Virginia that honors the Academy’s legacy.
The failure of a mine rescue mission on Sunday in northern Russia left six rescue workers and 26 miners dead. The miners had been trapped underground by a cave-in caused by methane explosions and fires.
From 1986 to 2010, 10 deadly explosions occurred in underground coal mines in the United States. The risk of explosion involves an interrelated chain of events. A source of heat (such as a spark) ignites methane gas in the air of the coal mine tunnel.