Federal Safety

MSHA News Release

ARLINGTON, Va. – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration marked the upcoming weekend’s unofficial start of summer with its annual warning to outdoor enthusiasts who may stray – knowingly or otherwise – onto mine property. Each year, numerous children and adults are injured or killed while engaging in recreational pursuits at active and abandoned mine sites around the country.

In 1999, MSHA launched “Stay Out-Stay Alive,” a public safety campaign, to educate people unfamiliar with mining about the hazards that exist at sand and gravel pits, underground mines and water-filled quarries.

MSHA will hold public hearings on “Examinations of Work Areas in Underground Coal Mines and Pattern of Violations” in the following locations:

MSHA announced the release of “25 transcripts of witness interviews from the investigation of the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion that occurred in April 2010.”  These documents “represent the first set in a series of interview transcripts that MSHA, with the approval of the U.S. Department of Justice, plans to release over the coming months.”

The interview transcripts may be found at http://www.msha.gov/PerformanceCoal/Transcripts/UBBInterviews.asp

Editor’s Note:  MSHA is focusing on spotlight on “a hazardous condition that may exist in 600 volt and 1000 volt circuit breakers.”  Of particular note, the “simplest way to determine if you have one of these circuit breakers installed or in your supply house is to run your finger nail down the square portion of the cover where the circuit breaker handle is installed. [illustration in attachment] If the cover is very smooth in this area, you probably have one of the hazardous circuit breakers.”   The complete MSHA document is attached below.