Melissa Lee’s life changed forever on May 20, 2006 when her husband Jimmy, 33 was killed, along with four other workers, in an explosion at the Kentucky Darby coal mine. Afterwards, she not only had four sons to raise without a dad, but as soon as Melissa started speaking up to demand mine safety improvements, […]
Estevan R. Benavidez’s family says he was a happy-to-lucky, 20 year old. He graduated from Miami (AZ) High School in 2008, was a talented tattoo artist, liked to fish, eat junk food, and spend time with his young daughter. On January 9, 2010 he was working for Ames Construction as a laborer at the Freeport […]
Ever since the Reagan Administration, the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which is part of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has been reviewing rules proposed by federal agencies. These regulations might come from the Dept of Energy (DOE) on efficiency standards for home refrigerators, HHS rule on premarket safety […]
The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is preparing to propose new regulations to protect coal mine workers from the respirable dust hazards that cause black lung disease. In May, the Labor Department’s regulatory agenda indicated that MSHA would propose a rule in September. The White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) […]
MSHA announced today that it will be issuing on September 23 an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to improve a practice to prevent coal dust explosions. The rule addresses “rock dusting”—-the decades old practice of generously applying pulverized limestone dust throughout a coal mine to dilute the potential power of a coal dust explosion. As NIOSH’s […]
Updated (8/15/10 2:00 pm EST) below Mine rescue teams continue their search to rescue or recover two workers struck by a “large surge of pressure” as they were being lowered into a mine shaft at Barrick’s Meikle mine near Elko, Nevada. As the Associated Press reports, the incident occurred on Thursday, August 12 at 1:15 […]
Thanks to Frank Gallagher blogging at FireDogLake for providing us the quote of the day courtesy of WYMT-TV in eastern Kentucky. In “US Chamber of Commerce goes astroturfing to sink miner safety bill,” he writes about the front-group sponsored by the Chamber and other business groups to oppose legislation to improve federal worker safety laws. […]
The Mine Safety and Health Administration took an important step yesterday to meet a goal set in the Labor Secretary’s regulatory agenda: proposing a rule to prevent black lung disease. According to data on RegInfo.gov MSHA submitted yesterday a proposed rule entitled “Lowering Miners’ Exposure to Coal Mine Dust Including Continuous Personal Dust Monitors”to OMB’s […]
Cong. George Miller (D-CA) is a man of tough talk and swift action. Today, along with 15 other House members, he introduced H.R. 5663 a bill to upgrade provisions of our nation’s key federal workplace health and safety laws. Every year, tens of thousands of workers are killed and made ill because of on-the-job hazards, […]
MSHA took another step toward openness by posting on its website the “preliminary report of accident” form for the most recent fatal injury incidents at US mining operations. The MSHA Form 7000-13 is the first record made by agency personnel when they are notified of a worker death, serious injury or other reportable event such […]