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#6962 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Fri Apr 3, 2009 1:57 am
Subject: Mine Employee Accidentally Dies
usmra
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Mine Employee Accidentally Dies
MyFox Birmingham - Birmingham,AL,USA
April 2, 2009
 

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A man died after an accident at a Walker county mine on Thursday morning.

His name has not yet been released.

The man was operating a rock truck at the Town Creek Mine in Sipsey. Reed Minerals owns the mine.

The company says that no other worker was injured in the accident.

State and federal investigators are investigating the death.

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#6963 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Sat Apr 4, 2009 3:48 am
Subject: Bill making mine rescue vehicles emergency vehicles passes in Senate
usmra
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Bill making mine rescue vehicles emergency vehicles passes in Senate
The Southern - Carbondale,IL,USA
April 3, 2009
 
 
A bill proposed by State Sen. Gary Forby that would designate mine rescue vehicles as official emergency vehicles has passed in the Illinois Senate.

Senate Bill 1297 says the Illinois Department of Natural Resources will make three to four vehicles used for the purpose of mine rescue able of ignoring posted speed limits while responding to a mine emergency situation. Current law mandates such vehicles to obey speed limits even in a crisis. The bill would also equip these vehicles with the appropriate flashing lights and sirens to warn other motorists of their presence.

“Mining accidents are often life-and-death situations,” Forby, D-Benton, said. “Mine rescue personnel and equipment can make all the difference. They absolutely should not be delayed.”

Forby proposed the bill in response to the Sago Mine disaster of 2006, which killed 12 of 13 miners trapped in a mine in West Virginia. Official reports on the incident state if mine rescue vehicles had not been delayed, more people might have survived.

SB 1297 now awaits consideration in the House.

_______________________________
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#6964 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Sat Apr 4, 2009 6:05 am
Subject: 16 trapped in NE China colliery flooding
usmra
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16 trapped in NE China colliery flooding
Xinhua - China
April 4, 2009
 

HARBIN -- Sixteen workers were trapped in a flooded coal mine Saturday in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, local authorities said.

The accident occurred at about 5 a.m. when 22 miners were working in Xingnong Township, Jixi City. Six escaped and 16 others were still missing as of Saturday noon, according to the information office of Jixi city government.

Rescue work and an investigation into the cause of the flood are underway.

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#6965 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Sat Apr 4, 2009 8:26 am
Subject: NIOSH Proposes Survey of Coal Mines' Safety Culture
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NIOSH Proposes Survey of Coal Mines' Safety Culture
Occupational Health Safety - Dallas,TX,USA
April 4, 2009
 

NIOSH has outlined a two-year proposed project to find ways to elevate the safety culture of America's coal mines. Explained in a March 31 Federal Register notice, the project would involve surveys, observations, interviews, and other collections of data at six underground coal mines to assess their current culture.

The agency asked for public comments within 60 days on whether the proposal will be useful and how to ensure the collected information is highly useful. The notice says 1,080 surveys and interviews would be conducted. The only cost to the participating mine personnel would be their time.

"In recent years, coal mining safety has attained national attention due to highly publicized disasters," the notice states. "Despite these threats to worker safety and health, the U.S. relies on coal mining to meet its electricity needs. For this reason, the coal mining industry must continue to find ways to protect its workers while maintaining productivity. One way to do so is through improving the safety culture at coal mines. In order to achieve this culture, operators, employees, the inspectorate, etc. must share a fundamental commitment to it as a value. This type of culture is known in other industries as a 'safety culture' and can be defined as the characteristics of the work environment, such as the norms, rules, and common understandings that influence facility personnel's perceptions of the importance that the organization places on safety."

For more information about the proposal or a copy of the data collection plans, call 404-639-5960. Send comments to Maryam I. Daneshvar, CDC Acting Reports Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D74, Atlanta, GA 30333 or send an e-mail to omb@....

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Home of the largest and most comprehensive
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http://www.usmra.com/repository/
 
 
Create-your-own Excel and PowerPoint training games
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#6966 From: "Mike Middlemas" <azoneguy2001@...>
Date: Mon Apr 6, 2009 1:41 pm
Subject: Re: Bill making mine rescue vehicles emergency vehicles passes in Senate
azoneguy2001
Send Email Send Email
 
---
As opposed to spending more money, Illinois should look next door to Indiana. 
We are foolishly spending taxpayers money on an unneeded dept. The industry in
this state is tired of trying to please two seperate groups....MSHA and IDMM




In MineRescue@yahoogroups.com, "USMRA" <usmra@...> wrote:
>


> Bill making mine rescue vehicles emergency vehicles passes in Senate
> The Southern - Carbondale,IL,USA
> April 3, 2009
>
>
> A bill proposed by State Sen. Gary Forby that would designate mine rescue
vehicles as official emergency vehicles has passed in the Illinois Senate.
>
> Senate Bill 1297 says the Illinois Department of Natural Resources will make
three to four vehicles used for the purpose of mine rescue able of ignoring
posted speed limits while responding to a mine emergency situation. Current law
mandates such vehicles to obey speed limits even in a crisis. The bill would
also equip these vehicles with the appropriate flashing lights and sirens to
warn other motorists of their presence.
>
> "Mining accidents are often life-and-death situations," Forby, D-Benton, said.
"Mine rescue personnel and equipment can make all the difference. They
absolutely should not be delayed."
>
> Forby proposed the bill in response to the Sago Mine disaster of 2006, which
killed 12 of 13 miners trapped in a mine in West Virginia. Official reports on
the incident state if mine rescue vehicles had not been delayed, more people
might have survived.
>
> SB 1297 now awaits consideration in the House.
>
> _______________________________
> U. S. Mine Rescue Association
> http://www.usmra.com
>
> Home of the largest and most comprehensive
> collection of mine safety training materials on the web
> http://www.usmra.com/repository/
>
> Take the Challenge
> http://www.usmra.com/rockysquiz/
>
> Create-your-own Excel and PowerPoint training games
> http://www.usmra.com/repository/category/games/training_games.htm
>
> When leaving our web site, click on any of the Google Ads found there.
> Your support in this way keeps our site free.
>

#6967 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:58 am
Subject: Graft in China Covers Up Toll of Coal Mines
usmra
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Graft in China Covers Up Toll of Coal Mines
By SHARON LaFRANIERE
New York Times - United States
April 11, 2009
 

ZHONGLOU, China — When an underground fire killed 35 men at the bottom of a coal shaft last year, the telltale signs of another Chinese mining disaster were everywhere: Black smoke billowed into the sky, dozens of rescuers searched nine hours for survivors, and sobbing relatives besieged the mine’s iron gate.

But though the owner and local government officials took few steps to prevent the tragedy, they succeeded, almost completely, in concealing it.

For nearly three months, not a word leaked from the heart of China’s coal belt about the July 14 explosion that racked the illegal mine, a 1,000-foot wormhole in Hebei Province, about 100 miles west of Beijing.

The mine owner paid off grieving families and cremated the miners’ bodies, even when relatives wanted to bury them. Local officials pretended to investigate, then issued a false report. Journalists were bribed to stay silent. The mine shaft was sealed with truckloads of dirt.

“It was so dark and evil in that place,” said the wife of one miner who missed his shift that day and so was spared. “No one dared report the accident because the owner was so powerful.”

Indeed, the Lijiawa mine tragedy might still be an official non-event, but one brave soul reported the cover-up in September on an Internet chat site. The central government in Beijing stepped in, firing 25 local officials and putting 22 of them under criminal investigation. The results of the inquiry are expected this month.

Such a wide-ranging cover-up might seem unusual in the Internet age, but it remains disturbingly common here. From mine disasters to chemical spills, the 2003 SARS epidemic to the past year’s scandal over tainted milk powder, Chinese bureaucrats habitually hide safety lapses for fear of being held accountable by the ruling Communist Party or exposing their own illicit ties to companies involved.

Under China’s authoritarian system, superiors reward subordinates for strict compliance with targets set from above, like reducing mine disasters. Should one occur, the incentive to hide it is often stronger than the reward for handling it well. A disaster on a bureaucrat’s watch is almost surely a blot on his career. A scandal buried quietly, under truckloads of dirt, may never be discovered.

China’s lack of a free press, independent trade unions, citizen watchdog groups and other checks on official power makes cover-ups more possible, even though the Internet now makes it harder to suppress information completely.

Work-safety officials in Beijing complain that even more than in other industries, death tolls from accidents at coal mines are often ratcheted down or not reported at all. That is because of the risky profits to be made — by businessmen and corrupt local officials — exploiting dangerous coal seams with temporary, unskilled workers in thousands of illegal mines.

Just two weeks after the Lijiawa disaster, for example, officials in neighboring Shanxi Province announced that 11 people had been killed in a natural landslide. After another Internet-lodged complaint, investigators discovered that 41 villagers had been buried under a torrent of rocks and waste from an iron mine.

Even if underreported, the official death rate for China’s coal mines is astronomically high. On average, nine coal miners a day died in China last year — a rate 40 times that of the United States, according to the State Administration of Work Safety. Small mines, legal and illegal, accounted for three-fourths of the deaths but only a third of the production.

To be sure, the mines are much safer than just six years ago. Huang Yi, the deputy administrator of the work safety agency, said stricter scrutiny, regulations and the closing of 12,000 mines had cut the death rate by three-fourths since 2002. “There are some illegal coal mines that still operate because they are protected by local officials,” Mr. Huang said, but “fewer and fewer.”

Hu Xingdou, an economics professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, argues that Beijing’s top-down approach can only do so much to make local officials more accountable.

“We don’t have the grass-roots democracy; we don’t have independent labor unions; we don’t have checks and balances; we don’t have any system of official accountability,” he said.

Work-safety officials are trying to fill the gap with hot lines, a Web site link, and even rewards to informants. But in a country that relies on coal for most of its electricity, powerful financial incentives lie behind unsafe mines.

China Labor Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based nongovernment group that advocates workers’ rights, estimates that even a small Chinese coal mine producing just 30,000 tons a year of coal can make up to $900,000 a year in profit. In 2005, the central government ordered officials to divest themselves of their holdings in mines that they supervised. But Professor Hu said, “Many officials still own shares.”

Here in Yu County, where roads divide towering pyramids of coal and the poor rake the ravaged land in search of loose chunks, local officials were widely assumed to be in league with mine operators. According to one local government official, nearly half of the county’s 200 mines operated illegally last year. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the subject is politically delicate.

“Everyone in Yu County thinks this accident was very typical,” he said. “If Mao was still in power, these local officials would be executed.”

The Lijiawa mine’s single shaft was no secret. Even though its owners lacked all six required licenses, it operated on state property in full view of a state-owned mine for more than three years, the official said.

Zhou Xinghai helped recruit migrant workers from hundreds of miles away to work the seams. The $600 monthly salary was high for migrant labor, but so were the risks.

In May, he said, miners were dismayed to discover that 59 mules had died from unventilated mine gas. Some oxygen cylinders were on hand in case of emergencies, he said, “but we didn’t know how to use them.”

Before the August Olympics, Beijing officials ordered all nearby mines shut down to reduce pollution. But Lijiawa continued its three shifts a day.

When five tons of explosives stored illegally in the mine caught fire in July, workers were trapped hundreds of feet underground with only a megaphone to summon help. Many suffocated trying to crawl out of the tunnel, Mr. Zhou said. Only three or four survived.

Mr. Zhou said the mine owner, Li Chengkui, enlisted him to deal with the victims’ families. He wanted the relatives split up so they would not “kick up a row,” Mr. Zhou said.

Over the next few days, Mr. Li or his managers struck deals with the families: 800,000 yuan, or about $120,000, if the miner was local; half that much if the miner was a migrant worker. The relatively high sums reflected the owners’ eagerness to suppress complaints. Locals were given more because they could cause more trouble, Mr. Zhou said.

The widow of the miner Yang Youbiao said she was hustled from the mine to a local hotel, then to another county and finally to a third county. There, she picked up her husband’s ashes even though she had wanted to bury his body. She asked that her name not be published for fear of retribution.

“They just gave us the ashes and told us to go,” she said, quietly weeping. “I don’t even know if the ashes belong to my husband.”

Zhou Jianghua’s brother survived the explosion, but suffered severe brain damage from lack of oxygen. At 37, he is now a semi-invalid, said Mr. Zhou, who is no relation to Zhou Xinghai. He said his family was offered 200,000 yuan, about $29,000, if they agreed not to sue the mine owner or speak to reporters, but an agreement was never reached.

In September, an Internet posting pleaded for justice. The writer said he had repeatedly reported the accident to the authorities.

“No feedback for over 70 days!!!!” he wrote. Instead, callers threatened him.

Hebei’s governor finally disclosed the accident in October. The Beijing news media subsequently reported that 25 officials had been fired, that an official report had been faked and that dozens of journalists had taken bribes. Now the central government is busily trying to make an example of Yu County by shutting down illegal mines. A new cast of officials is in charge.

But Yang Youbiao’s widow says she does not believe culpable officials will be punished.

“They can find ways to avoid it,” she said.” There won’t be any end to this kind of tragedy.”

_______________________________
U. S. Mine Rescue Association
http://www.usmra.com
 
Home of the largest and most comprehensive
collection of mine safety training materials on the web
http://www.usmra.com/repository/
 
 
Create-your-own Excel and PowerPoint training games
http://www.usmra.com/repository/category/games/training_games.htm
 
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Your support in this way keeps our site free.

#6968 From: "Richard Myers" <rtmyers@...>
Date: Sun Apr 12, 2009 12:11 am
Subject: Graft in China Covers Toll of Coal Mines
richard_t_myers
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Graft in China Covers Up Toll of Coal Mines


Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

The opening to the Lijiawa mine in Zhonglou, marked by the date of a fire last year that killed 35.

By SHARON LaFRANIERE

Published: April 10, 2009

ZHONGLOU, China — When an underground fire killed 35 men at the bottom of a coal shaft last year, the telltale signs of another Chinese mining disaster were everywhere: Black smoke billowed into the sky, dozens of rescuers searched nine hours for survivors, and sobbing relatives besieged the mine's iron gate.

The New York Times

For three months, no word leaked of the Lijiawa fire.

But though the owner and local government officials took few steps to prevent the tragedy, they succeeded, almost completely, in concealing it.

For nearly three months, not a word leaked from the heart of China's coal belt about the July 14 explosion that racked the illegal mine, a 1,000-foot wormhole in Hebei Province, about 100 miles west of Beijing.

The mine owner paid off grieving families and cremated the miners' bodies, even when relatives wanted to bury them. Local officials pretended to investigate, then issued a false report. Journalists were bribed to stay silent. The mine shaft was sealed with truckloads of dirt.

"It was so dark and evil in that place," said the wife of one miner who missed his shift that day and so was spared. "No one dared report the accident because the owner was so powerful."

Indeed, the Lijiawa mine tragedy might still be an official non-event, but one brave soul reported the cover-up in September on an Internet chat site. The central government in Beijing stepped in, firing 25 local officials and putting 22 of them under criminal investigation. The results of the inquiry are expected this month.

Such a wide-ranging cover-up might seem unusual in the Internet age, but it remains disturbingly common here. From mine disasters to chemical spills, the 2003 SARS epidemic to the past year's scandal over tainted milk powder, Chinese bureaucrats habitually hide safety lapses for fear of being held accountable by the ruling Communist Party or exposing their own illicit ties to companies involved.

Under China's authoritarian system, superiors reward subordinates for strict compliance with targets set from above, like reducing mine disasters. Should one occur, the incentive to hide it is often stronger than the reward for handling it well. A disaster on a bureaucrat's watch is almost surely a blot on his career. A scandal buried quietly, under truckloads of dirt, may never be discovered.

China's lack of a free press, independent trade unions, citizen watchdog groups and other checks on official power makes cover-ups more possible, even though the Internet now makes it harder to suppress information completely.

Work-safety officials in Beijing complain that even more than in other industries, death tolls from accidents at coal mines are often ratcheted down or not reported at all. That is because of the risky profits to be made — by businessmen and corrupt local officials — exploiting dangerous coal seams with temporary, unskilled workers in thousands of illegal mines.

Just two weeks after the Lijiawa disaster, for example, officials in neighboring Shanxi Province announced that 11 people had been killed in a natural landslide. After another Internet-lodged complaint, investigators discovered that 41 villagers had been buried under a torrent of rocks and waste from an iron mine.

Even if underreported, the official death rate for China's coal mines is astronomically high. On average, nine coal miners a day died in China last year — a rate 40 times that of the United States, according to the State Administration of Work Safety. Small mines, legal and illegal, accounted for three-fourths of the deaths but only a third of the production.

To be sure, the mines are much safer than just six years ago. Huang Yi, the deputy administrator of the work safety agency, said stricter scrutiny, regulations and the closing of 12,000 mines had cut the death rate by three-fourths since 2002. "There are some illegal coal mines that still operate because they are protected by local officials," Mr. Huang said, but "fewer and fewer."

Hu Xingdou, an economics professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, argues that Beijing's top-down approach can only do so much to make local officials more accountable.

"We don't have the grass-roots democracy; we don't have independent labor unions; we don't have checks and balances; we don't have any system of official accountability," he said.

Work-safety officials are trying to fill the gap with hot lines, a Web site link, and even rewards to informants. But in a country that relies on coal for most of its electricity, powerful financial incentives lie behind unsafe mines.

Enlarge This Image

Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

Near a state-owned coal mine, Song Xiyi recently collected leftover coal at the Lijiawa mine in Zhonglou, where a fire killed 35 and officials tried to hide news of it.

Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

Workers storing coal recently in Yu County in Hebei Province, where local officials were widely assumed to be in league with mine operators.

China Labor Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based nongovernment group that advocates workers' rights, estimates that even a small Chinese coal mine producing just 30,000 tons a year of coal can make up to $900,000 a year in profit. In 2005, the central government ordered officials to divest themselves of their holdings in mines that they supervised. But Professor Hu said, "Many officials still own shares."

Here in Yu County, where roads divide towering pyramids of coal and the poor rake the ravaged land in search of loose chunks, local officials were widely assumed to be in league with mine operators. According to one local government official, nearly half of the county's 200 mines operated illegally last year. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the subject is politically delicate.

"Everyone in Yu County thinks this accident was very typical," he said. "If Mao was still in power, these local officials would be executed."

The Lijiawa mine's single shaft was no secret. Even though its owners lacked all six required licenses, it operated on state property in full view of a state-owned mine for more than three years, the official said.

Zhou Xinghai helped recruit migrant workers from hundreds of miles away to work the seams. The $600 monthly salary was high for migrant labor, but so were the risks.

In May, he said, miners were dismayed to discover that 59 mules had died from unventilated mine gas. Some oxygen cylinders were on hand in case of emergencies, he said, "but we didn't know how to use them."

Before the August Olympics, Beijing officials ordered all nearby mines shut down to reduce pollution. But Lijiawa continued its three shifts a day.

When five tons of explosives stored illegally in the mine caught fire in July, workers were trapped hundreds of feet underground with only a megaphone to summon help. Many suffocated trying to crawl out of the tunnel, Mr. Zhou said. Only three or four survived.

Mr. Zhou said the mine owner, Li Chengkui, enlisted him to deal with the victims' families. He wanted the relatives split up so they would not "kick up a row," Mr. Zhou said.

Over the next few days, Mr. Li or his managers struck deals with the families: 800,000 yuan, or about $120,000, if the miner was local; half that much if the miner was a migrant worker. The relatively high sums reflected the owners' eagerness to suppress complaints. Locals were given more because they could cause more trouble, Mr. Zhou said.

The widow of the miner Yang Youbiao said she was hustled from the mine to a local hotel, then to another county and finally to a third county. There, she picked up her husband's ashes even though she had wanted to bury his body. She asked that her name not be published for fear of retribution.

"They just gave us the ashes and told us to go," she said, quietly weeping. "I don't even know if the ashes belong to my husband."

Zhou Jianghua's brother survived the explosion, but suffered severe brain damage from lack of oxygen. At 37, he is now a semi-invalid, said Mr. Zhou, who is no relation to Zhou Xinghai. He said his family was offered 200,000 yuan, about $29,000, if they agreed not to sue the mine owner or speak to reporters, but an agreement was never reached.

In September, an Internet posting pleaded for justice. The writer said he had repeatedly reported the accident to the authorities.

"No feedback for over 70 days!!!!" he wrote. Instead, callers threatened him.

Hebei's governor finally disclosed the accident in October. The Beijing news media subsequently reported that 25 officials had been fired, that an official report had been faked and that dozens of journalists had taken bribes. Now the central government is busily trying to make an example of Yu County by shutting down illegal mines. A new cast of officials is in charge.

But Yang Youbiao's widow says she does not believe culpable officials will be punished.

"They can find ways to avoid it," she said." There won't be any end to this kind of tragedy."

Huang Yuanxi contributed reporting from Beijing, and Zhang Jing contributed research from Yu County.


Forwarded from the Working Class list on Yahoo.
 

#6969 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:04 pm
Subject: Two miners trapped in coalmine in Donetsk region for two days rescued
usmra
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Two miners trapped in coalmine in Donetsk region for two days rescued
Kyiv Post - Kyiv,Ukraine
April 13, 2009
 
 
Two miners, trapped following a roof collapse at the Poltavska coalmine in Yenakieve, Donetsk region, on April 11, have been rescued, the Ostrov Web publication reported on Monday.

The spokesman for the State Committee for Industrial Safety, Labor Protection and Mining Supervision's office in Donetsk region, Maryna Nikitina, told the publication that the miners had practically reached the surface by themselves before being rescued.

As reported a shaft roof collapsed at a depth of 477 meters on Saturday, April 11. Two miners were working at the scene at the time of the accident.

_______________________________
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Home of the largest and most comprehensive
collection of mine safety training materials on the web
http://www.usmra.com/repository/
 
 
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#6970 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:00 pm
Subject: Six trapped in north China iron mine flooding
usmra
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Six trapped in north China iron mine flooding
Xinhua - China
April 14, 2009
 

SHIJIAZHUANG, Hebei, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Six workers were trapped in a flooded iron mine Tuesday in north China's Hebei Province, local authorities said.

The accident occurred at about 10 a.m. at an iron mine in Huzhuangzi Village, said officials of Zunhua City, which administers the village. Zunhua city is under the administration of Tangshan City, one of China's major producers of iron and steel.

Rescue work is continuing. No other details are available at this time.

_______________________________
U. S. Mine Rescue Association
http://www.usmra.com
 
Home of the largest and most comprehensive
collection of mine safety training materials on the web
http://www.usmra.com/repository/
 
 
Create-your-own Excel and PowerPoint training games
http://www.usmra.com/repository/category/games/training_games.htm
 
When leaving our web site, click on any of the Google Ads found there.
Your support in this way keeps our site free.

#6971 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Wed Apr 15, 2009 10:37 am
Subject: NIOSH Will Measure Atmospheres of Sealed Areas
usmra
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NIOSH Will Measure Atmospheres of Sealed Areas
Occupational Health Safety - Dallas,TX,USA
April 15, 2009
 

NIOSH asked coal mining companies yesterday to provide a list of mine sites where the agency can conduct studies on the composition of atmospheres within sealed areas. This research will test whether potentially explosive methane mixtures are present in those areas, how gas concentration changes over time and is affected by barometric pressure changes, and whether methane layering exists. The composition of atmospheres behind seals inside coal mines became a focal point after the Jan. 2, 2006, Sago Mine explosion in West Virginia in which 12 miners died.

MSHA's single source page on Sago is available here, and its conclusion that lightning triggered the Sago blast is here. Sandia National Laboratories' April 2007 report ("Measurement and Modeling of Transfer Functions for Lightning Coupling into the Sago Mine") on its test of the hypothesis that a lighting stroke caused the methane blast is available here.

Many resources about Sago and sealed areas are available at www.msha.gov. The agency last Friday launched a new Web server and a more powerful search tool for users.

NIOSH wants to sequentially test three or four underground coal mines of at least one square mile that produce medium to high volumes of methane. To be accepted, a mine site must be installing 120 psi seals that meet the current design standard. NIOSH asked companies to send letters of interest within 90 days to R.G. Gurtunca, Ph.D., NIOSH Pittsburgh Research Laboratory, 626 Cochrans Mill Road, P.O. Box 18070, Pittsburgh, PA 15236 (phone 412-386-6601, e-mail GGurtunca@...). Either longwall or room-and-pillar mines are acceptable, and a soon-to-be-abandoned coal mine is an option, it said.

_______________________________
U. S. Mine Rescue Association
http://www.usmra.com
 
Home of the largest and most comprehensive
collection of mine safety training materials on the web
http://www.usmra.com/repository/
 
 
Create-your-own Excel and PowerPoint training games
http://www.usmra.com/repository/category/games/training_games.htm
 
When leaving our web site, click on any of the Google Ads found there.
Your support in this way keeps our site free.

#6972 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:13 am
Subject: Massey subsidiary fined $2.5M for fatal mine fire
usmra
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Massey subsidiary fined $2.5M for fatal mine fire
The Associated Press
April 15, 2009
 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A Massey Energy subsidiary was fined $2.5 million fine Wednesday after a federal judge accepted the company's guilty plea to 10 criminal charges for a fire that killed two West Virginia coal miners.

U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver approved Aracoma Coal Co.'s plea deal despite a provision sparing Massey officials and the Richmond, Va., coal company from prosecution. The agreement also required Aracoma to pay a $1.7 million fine for civil violations found by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

The charges center on a Jan. 19, 2006, fire at Aracoma's Alma No. 1 mine about 60 miles from Charleston in West Virginia's southern coalfields. Aracoma pleaded guilty to violating several federal safety requirements.

Miners Don Bragg and Ellery Elvis Hatfield got lost when thick smoke entered what was supposed to be a sealed escape route. While other crewmembers escaped through a secondary tunnel, Bragg and Hatfield got separated and perished. Government investigators later faulted Aracoma for removing two air-control walls that allowed smoke into the escape tunnel.

Separate state and federal investigations concluded an overheated conveyer belt caused the fire.

The Aracoma fire — along with methane gas explosions that killed 12 men at the Sago Mine in West Virginia and five at the Kentucky Darby mine in eastern Kentucky in 2006 — prompted sweeping changes to federal and state coal mine safety laws.

U.S. Attorney Charles Miller said the government is giving up little by agreeing to limit the prosecution to the subsidiary.

"The evidence simply did not support a criminal prosecution of Massey or its officers," Miller said after the sentencing. "The violations were limited to Aracoma."

He said the investigation continues.

Last week, Aracoma foreman David R. Runyon pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to conduct safety drills at the mine and his sentencing is scheduled for July 9.

Miller also noted federal law limits criminal prosecutions of mining accidents to willful violations of safety standards and falsifying records.

"It may not be adequate to make the victims whole, but that's all we have," Miller said.

He said he told that to attorneys representing the widows of Bragg and Hatfield during the sentencing hearing. He added that he can't legally ask Congress to change the law but victims' relatives are free to lobby their lawmakers.

"I tell them they're under no constraints to talking to their congressmen," he said.

Attorney Bruce Stanley, who represents the widows, asked Copenhaver to reject the plea deal, saying it protects Massey and Chief Executive Don Blankenship. Massey, the nation's fourth-largest coal producer by revenue, settled a separate lawsuit brought by the widows in November. Terms were not disclosed.

"The West Virginia delegation ought to heed the words that were said here today," Stanley said after the hearing. "There is absolutely no excuse for what happened at the Alma mine."

Besides West Virginia, Massey operates coal mines in Virginia and Kentucky.

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#6973 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:56 am
Subject: Five miners rescued from flooded mine in north China
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Five miners rescued from flooded mine in north China
Xinhua - China
April 16, 2009
 

SHIJIAZHUANG, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Five of the six workers trapped in a flooded iron mine in north China's Hebei Province were rescued Thursday morning, rescuers said.

Their conditions were described as "stable" after being trapped underground for almost 48 hours. Rescuers are continuing to search for the missing miner.

More than 260 workers and 20 experts are helping in the rescue operation.

The flooding occurred early Tuesday at the iron mine in Huzhuangzi Village, Zunhua City, while eight miners were underground. Two managed to escape.

The Zunhua municipal government received a tip-off about the flooding Tuesday afternoon. Zunhua is under the administration of Tangshan City, one of China's major producers of iron and steel.

The iron mine has no production license. Police have detained the mine owner pending their investigation into the cause of the accident.

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#6974 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:53 pm
Subject: 8 die in explosives warehouse blast at coal mine in Hunan
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8 die in explosives warehouse blast at coal mine in Hunan
China.org.cn - China
April 17, 2009
 

At least eight people died and five others were injured in a blast Friday at a detonator and dynamite warehouse at a coal mine in Chenzhou City of central China's Hunan Province, a local official said.

Xie Guanghui, head of the Yongxing County government in Chenzhou, told Xinhua that rescuers did not know if more people were buried in the rubble.

The blast occurred at 3:30 PM at the Qingshanbei mine.

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#6975 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Sun Apr 19, 2009 6:51 pm
Subject: Methane blast kills 12 in Iranian mine
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Methane blast kills 12 in Iranian mine
PRESS TV - Tehran,Iran
April 19, 2009
 
 
A gas explosion has torn through a coalmine near the town of Zarand in the southern Iranian province of Kerman, killing 12 people.

Following investigations, Zarand's governor Hassan Rahmani described a buildup of methane gas as the cause of the explosion.

Rahmani said the blast happened at midday, adding that 12 miners were killed.

"Two victims have been taken out from under the rubble and the rest of the bodies will be recovered in a few hours," Rahmani told IRNA.

Iran's Minister of Mine and Industries Ali-Akbar Mehrabian said the ministry has dispatched a rescue team to the location of the blast to further investigate the incident.

The high concentration of methane in mines makes them especially dangerous.

Earlier in 2005, an explosion at the same mine in Kerman killed 9 people.

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#6976 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:15 am
Subject: Few Kentucky officials have endorsed candidates to head MSHA
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Few Kentucky officials have endorsed candidates to head MSHA
Louisville Courier-Journal - Louisville,KY,USA
By R. G. Dunlop
April 20, 2009
 

Despite its vital importance to Kentucky and keen interest among labor, industry and other advocates nationwide, just one of the state's top Democratic elected officials has weighed in on President Barack Obama's impending choice to head the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Only U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-6th District, has endorsed any of the three leading candidates, who are:

Joe Main, the former longtime head of the United Mine Workers of America's Department of Occupational Health and Safety, who now is a consultant in the Washington, D.C., area.

J. Davitt McAteer, who led MSHA during President Bill Clinton's administration and who is a career mine-safety activist. He currently practices law in West Virginia.

Tony Mayville, director of the Illinois Office of Land Management and a former union miner and state mine-safety official.

In February, Chandler wrote a letter to Obama expressing his "strong endorsement" of Main. But Gov. Steve Beshear, U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, and state House Speaker Greg Stumbo haven't lobbied for any of the potential nominees.

"I think it is as simple as we (haven't) been asked to make a recommendation," said Jay Blanton, a spokesman for Beshear. And "given that there isn't a Kentucky candidate, we normally don't recommend in a case like that."

After consulting with Stumbo, who hails from Floyd County in the heart of the Eastern Kentucky coalfields, his communications director, Brian Wilkerson, said Stumbo "was unaware there was an opening" at MSHA.

"It's a federal thing," Wilkerson said.

Richard Stickler, the former interim head of MSHA, left the agency Jan. 20, the day Obama was sworn in.

Created in 1978, MSHA is headed by an assistant secretary of labor who administers a broad regulatory program designed to reduce fatalities, injuries and illnesses in mining. It has 11 coal mine safety and health divisions nationwide, three of which are in Kentucky.

The agency is widely considered by mine-safety authorities to be a key component in efforts to minimize harm to workers underground.

"Half of our electricity comes from coal, and to the extent that we're going to rely on coal, we need to ensure that the people who work in that core industry come out other than in a casket or with respiratory disease," said Celeste Monforton, a researcher in the George Washington University School of Public Health in Washington, D.C.

"The (federal) Mine Act is a really powerful statute. What we need is someone at MSHA who realizes the potential of the statute and takes full advantage of it."

Not surprisingly, Main has been endorsed by the mine workers' union, where he worked for 30 years. And he has support from several top UMWA officials in Kentucky, as well as from Tony Oppegard, a Lexington attorney and former federal and state mine-safety official who has long been an advocate for strict enforcement of safety laws and miners' rights.

Also favoring Main's candidacy are Joe Lamonica, a former top official at MSHA who now works as a consultant to the Bituminous Coal Operators Association, and U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W. Va., who, according to a statement issued by his office, considers Main "a leader that miners can believe in."

The National Mining Association, which describes itself as "the voice of the American mining industry in Washington," is not publicly endorsing any of the candidates, according to Bruce Watzman, the organization's vice president of safety and health.

Because of his credentials, as well as his support from organized labor and some segments of the mining industry, Main is regarded by many as the front-runner to lead MSHA. But his top competitors have strong resumes of their own.

Like Main, McAteer has devoted his career to miners' safety and health, dating back to his work 40 years ago to help implement landmark federal mine-safety legislation.

Monforton, who was a special assistant to McAteer at MSHA in the 1990s, said his "credentials and experience, as well as familiarity with the agency, make him a great candidate" to lead it again.

Main and McAteer, both of whom have been interviewed for the job, declined to discuss their candidacies.

Mayville, who has not yet been granted an interview, said he thinks his broad experience makes him well qualified to run MSHA. Mayville said that while he knew Obama when he was a state senator in Illinois, he did not think that association or his ties to that state would be factors in the selection process.

MSHA and White House officials declined to discuss the nomination.

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#6977 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:30 am
Subject: Worker faked mine reports, state says
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Worker faked mine reports, state says
Louisville Courier-Journal - Louisville,KY,USA
By R.G. Dunlop
April 20, 2009
 

HAZARD, Ky. — For at least a year, Betty Sue Whitaker allegedly lived a lie that threatened coal miners’ health and safety, as well as the reputation of the state agency that employed her.

But even after determining that Whitaker had falsified more than two dozen inspection reports — pretending to evaluate workers at mines that she visited briefly or not at all — the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet allowed her to resign last month without making her repay the thousands of dollars in salary it had concluded she did not earn.

The cabinet also has not asked a prosecutor to review the case for possible criminal charges, despite one official’s earlier suggestion that such a referral might be appropriate.

Whitaker, a former miner and coal-company employee, had worked as a safety analyst in the Hazard district of the state’s Office of Mine Safety and Licensing since July 1999.

Her primary responsibility was to prevent accidents and fatalities by observing and assessing miners’ work habits, then submitting detailed reports on her findings to her supervisors.

But the state alleged that in late 2007 and throughout last year, Whitaker rarely visited any the mines she claimed to have inspected, instead concocting phony reports and forging company officials’ signatures on them.

And she escaped detection, the state found, in part because coal-company officials who knew of her absences from their mines did not report them, and because her longtime former supervisor either did not notice or challenge what she was doing.

During a recent, brief but profanity-laden
telephone interview from her Perry County home, the 50-year-old Whitaker insisted that she did her job and resigned because of an array of physical ailments that rendered her barely able to walk.

“The state’s full of crap,” she said. “They’re just full of crap. I did not falsify nothing.”

When state investigators sought to interview Whitaker in late December, she told them she was on medication and her “nerves” would not allow her to talk with them, according to their 20-page report, a copy of which was obtained by The Courier-Journal from the Office of Mine Safety and Licensing.

Late warning signs

The alleged fraud came to light late last fall, when David Mullins, Whitaker’s new boss, found several troubling items in a report she had just submitted on the Perry County Coal Corp.’s E4-1 mine.

In the report, Whitaker stated that she had observed two miners who, Mullins knew, couldn’t have been there when she said she inspected the operation.

One had been suspended for a drug violation and was no longer employed by the company; the other was in the hospital after breaking a bone in his neck a day earlier. And the report was signed with the name of a foreman who was not working at the E4-1 mine.

Two days later, Mullins — who had been in charge of the mining office’s Hazard district for only about two months — was at the E4-1 mine asking questions, including: Has anyone seen Betty Whitaker lately?

The answers Mullins got led him to share his concerns with state mining officials in Frankfort. The full investigation they ordered ultimately found that Whitaker had “completely fabricated” 26 reports last year and at least three more in 2007.

Those reports, some a dozen or more pages in length, spoke of personal contacts Whitaker supposedly had with scores of miners, who were listed by name.

The documents recounted the conditions underground that Whitaker said she’d noted, the unsafe acts she’d allegedly observed, the training records she’d purportedly audited, the safety meetings she claimed to have held.

Was ventilation adequate? Did equipment have excessive amounts of oil and grease? Was the roof-control plan being followed? Was the mine clean, and rock-dusted well? Did company personnel know how to properly sample for the presence of potentially explosive gases?

Whitaker noted all that, and more. But the state determined that it was bogus, leading investigators to recommend that the reports be purged from state records.

The investigators also found that Whitaker submitted to the state more than 1,200 hours she had not worked and received more than $33,000 in salary she had not earned.

They also concluded that her neglect had placed miners at “greater risk of being seriously injured or killed.”
The consequences

Based on those findings, the cabinet’s deputy secretary, Henry List, told Whitaker in a Feb. 16 letter that she would be fired.

“Your conduct may have irreparably damaged the integrity of the Office of Mine Safety and Licensing,” List wrote. He also raised the possibility that Whitaker’s conduct was criminal and warranted review by prosecutors.

Whitaker resigned during her pre-termination hearing March 2.

In response to questions from the newspaper about the state’s handling of the case, cabinet spokesman Dick Brown said in a recent e-mail that there was no agreement to forgo a criminal investigation in exchange for Whitaker’s resignation.

There is “nothing further to be gained by seeking prosecution,” Brown said. “She (Whitaker) resigned, rather than face termination. That, in and of itself, is appropriate punishment.”

Brown also said the state has no plans to seek repayment of the salary investigators concluded she had fraudulently collected: “We believe our time is better spent concentrating on providing a safe working environment for Kentucky coal miners.”

Curtis Hall, Mullins’ predecessor in the mining agency’s Hazard office, was Whitaker’s boss for more than seven years until he retired last July — a few months before Mullins began checking into Whitaker’s work.

Hall initially consented to an interview with the newspaper, but said the next day that he had changed his mind. Instead, he sent an e-mail saying that he had not been “officially made aware” of the allegations against Whitaker, and that “my ministry and family has been my main focus since my retirement.”((i don’t think the grammatical mistake is so bad that we need a ‘sic’/rrs))

Coal companies knew

The state’s report also contains an assertion by Rick Campbell, superintendent at the Leeco 68 (67) mine, that he had informed Mike Eldridge, an inspector in the mining agency’s Hazard office, “about not having an analyst here for eight months.”

But the report does not say when he told Eldridge, or what, if anything, Eldridge did about it.

Campbell and Eldridge declined to be interviewed, and Brown wouldn’t comment on the matter.

“We are not going to discuss what someone may or may not have said or heard as off-handed comments in regards to this case,” he said.

The report also indicates that besides Campbell, more than a dozen other coal company officials and supervisors told investigators that they knew Whitaker had not been doing her job.

For example, Don Hacker, a Perry County Coal Corp. official, said Whitaker had been to the company’s E3-1 mine just once during the past year. That visit occurred after the state’s investigation began.

And Larry Begley, superintendent of the ICG Flint Ridge No. 2 mine, said: “I do not know of her ever going underground here,” according to the report.

Whitaker said that Hacker, Begley and the other company officials were lying about her because mine inspectors and analysts “piss off everybody … by makin’ them do their job.”

She concluded the conversation by stating: “They’re every one full of ----(shit), OK? And that’s all I’ve got to say.”

Then she hung up.

Bill Caylor, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, asserted in an interview that company personnel had no responsibility to report Whitaker’s prolonged absences, even though they may have compromised safety.

“I don’t think the operator has any obligation. I think the state has the obligation to send them (analysts) out,” Caylor said, adding: “There are so many inspectors on a regular basis, maybe they (the operators) didn’t notice.”

But Tony Oppegard, a Lexington attorney and a former federal and state mine-safety official, said that while coal companies probably had no legal obligation to inform the state about Whitaker, “if they were concerned about mine safety, that would have been the proper thing to do. They have a moral obligation.”

He also contends that miners in Eastern Kentucky “are already taught by operators that inspectors are their enemies, that inspectors are trying to shut the mine down and put them out of a job. So when you have a corrupt inspector, that reinforces the stereotype that inspectors can’t be trusted. Miners feel there’s no one they can turn to.”

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#6978 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Tue Apr 21, 2009 6:33 pm
Subject: 3 injured in White County coal mine accident
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3 injured in White County coal mine accident
April 21, 2009
 
It was reported that three people were injured in an accident this morning at the Pattiki coal mine southeast of Carmi in Illinois.

Sgt. Byrd Huber said he had no information on the accident itself, but that deputies were called to the accident scene and helped load three accident victims into ambulances. The call came in about 7 AM
He said that the injuries were serious but that he did not know if they were considered life-threatening.
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#6979 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Wed Apr 22, 2009 8:01 am
Subject: Eight killed in Colombia gold mine collapse
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Eight killed in Colombia gold mine collapse
Earthtimes (press release) - London,UK
April 22, 2009
 
Bogota - At least eight miners died and four others were injured in the collapse of a gold mine in northwest Colombia, officials said Tuesday.  Victor Tamayo, governor of Choco province, said the mine was located in a remote, jungle region about four hours from the nearest city.
 
In a separate incident in the same province, the Attorney General's office confiscated 24 dredges used in illegal gold-mining operations without permits that caused environmental degradation.

The office said the machinery was seized at several points along the Quito River, in the municipalities of Paimado and Manugru.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy reported that 400 hectares of forest were destroyed this year by illegal gold-mining, and that 3.7 tons of mercury had been dumped into the soil and rivers, endangering public health and the environment.
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#6980 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:08 am
Subject: Training Materials - New Arrivals
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Here's the current list of new arrivals to the USMRA Safety Training Materials Repository.  For more, visit http://www.usmra.com/repository/.
 
Rob
 
Category Search
Keyword Search
Video Search
Category List
Title Search
Web Links
Photos
Last 20 Days
 
Format Category Title File Size
Adobe PDF File Accidents Safety Alert: Mine worker crushed against rib by miner
A Dash 3 continuous miner (CM) was being moved out of a heading when it slewed unexpectedly and trapped a mine worker, who was acting as a cable hand, between the rib and the head of the CM, causing life-threatening injuries.
40 Kb
Adobe PDF File Biomarine How to Successfully Wash, Disinfect and Dry Your BioPak 240 Revolution
As part of turn-around maintenance the BioPak 240R must be thoroughly washed, disinfected, rinsed and dried. IT IS THE FIRST STEP of the process and must be done as soon as possible after each use. Undue delay or failure to wash/disinfect, rinse and dry the BioPak 240R can lead to mold/mildew growth inside the apparatus.
668 Kb
Video File Communications Bluetooth Gone Wrong
Video ad with a man in a convenience store talking on a cell phone through a bluetooth device. It'll make you laugh.
1.5 Mb
Web Link Construction Acrobatic Repairman
You don't have to look far to see why laws were passed giving us OSHA, MSHA, etc.
4 Kb
MS PowerPoint File Dredges and Barges Dredges and Barges
Discussion of hazards associated with dredges and barges. (56 slides)
1.6 Mb
MS PowerPoint File Driving Safety Fatal Automobile Accident (Very Graphic)
A Porsche 911 Carrera clipped a Honda trying to pass on the right at more than 100 mph on the Eastern (241) Toll Road in California, the Highway Patrol said. The operator was driving southbound near Alton Parkway when she suddenly switched lanes and lost control of the Porsche, CHP officials said, and then cut across the center median, careened across several lanes of traffic and crashed into a tollbooth. (Warning: photos contained in this document are EXTREMELY GRAPHIC!) (11 slides)
1.1 Mb
MS PowerPoint File Environmental Hazards Pedestrian and Biker Instruction
You could swear these gators could read.
224 Kb
Adobe PDF File Firefighting Ansul Product Bulletin I
Ansul's January 30, 2009 bulletin introducing the new protracting actuation device (PAD).
337 Kb
Adobe PDF File Firefighting Ansul Product Bulletin II
Ansul's March 4, 2009 bulletin pertaining to the replacement life cycle of the Gas Motor Generator and PAD.
85 Kb
Video File Firefighting The Marijuana's on fire
Firefighter is interviewed after responding to fire involving marijuana plants.
1.6 Mb
Web Link Forklift Forklift Crushes Worker
Video of an accident investigation where a worker was crushed by a forklift and it load.
4 Kb
Web Link Forklift Surveillance camera fork lift accidents
Video compilation of numerous forklift accidents.
4 Kb
Video File Hazard Recognition Guy Gets Run Over
Just like the story about the snake handler. Never turn your back on 'em. They wiil bite. So goes it in your workplace.
1.6 Mb
Web Link Mine Gases H2S Nearmiss Accident
Video of a nearmiss accident where a truck driver nearly dies when exposed to Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S).
4 Kb
Web Link Powered Haulage Inadequate Berms?
Photos of a truck that motored over a very steep and very ugly looking embankment. No details as to the outcome.
4 Kb
MS PowerPoint File PPE Acid Burn
An Instrument Tech either used a glove with an existing hole or may have punched a hole in the glove from a wire snag while climbing scaffolding.(Warning: contains graphic photos) (17 slides)
2.2 Mb
MS Word File Resources Internet Safety Resources
Here's a list of 67 web sites that offer safety and training resources. Will keep you busy for days!
32 Kb
Web Link Resources Safety Videos from WorkSafeBC
Link to a YouTube page with loads of safety videos from WorkSafeBC in Canada.
2 Kb
Image File Scaffolding Looks level on this end
And if you suggested that the hard working folks that did this weren't professionals, you'd probably start a fight.
140 Kb
_______________________________
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Home of the largest and most comprehensive
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#6981 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:17 pm
Subject: Twin Lakes native shafts 'Disaster Lab'
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Twin Lakes native shafts ‘Disaster Lab’
Kenosha News
April 23, 2009
 

Twin Lakes native Harry Lovely, a mine safety instructor for Colorado, will be featured today in an episode of “Disaster Lab” on the National Geographic Channel.

Lovely, 46, who sets up lifelike disaster drills for rescue workers in an underground mine about 40 miles west of Denver, was called upon to help test a new, state-of-the-art search-and-rescue robot.

The testing is part of “Disaster Lab: Collapse,” which will air at 4 p.m. The robot is initially being tested for use in building disaster rescue efforts.

“If it works out well enough for homes then maybe it will have applications in the mining industry,” Lovely said during a break in training Wednesday.

Lovely helped create a scenario in the Edgar Mine that sends the robot through an opening too narrow for a rescue worker, into a smoky, dark space where it then uses a thermal-imaging camera to locate people behind piles of rubble. Further tests of the robot were conducted in Texas and West Virginia.

For disaster specialist Tim Samaras and a team of engineers, getting the robot to overcome the rubble was a huge stumbling block. Prior to the Colorado test, the robot failed to climb loose rock. But, outfitted with new vulcanized rubber wheels, the robot performed well in the mine.

Lovely was pleased with the robot’s ability to locate people in such conditions. Had the smoke been real, the actors would have been unconscious.

“Knowing where the people are is very, very crucial,” he said.

Lovely started working for the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety in 2006, the same year 12 people were killed in the Sago mine disaster in West Virginia.

The Edgar Mine, located in Idaho Springs, Colo., is the only underground facility of its kind in the United States. Rescue workers are exposed to cave-in situations, fire, smoke and communication breakdowns during the exercises.

_______________________________
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Home of the largest and most comprehensive
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#6982 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Fri Apr 24, 2009 5:59 pm
Subject: Industrial Scientific MX6 IBriD
usmra
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I'm looking for any written test materials that may be available for the new Industrial Scientific MX6 IBriD meters.
 
 
Rob

#6983 From: "Cool, John" <jcool@...>
Date: Sat Apr 25, 2009 12:57 am
Subject: RE: [USMRA] Twin Lakes native shafts 'Disaster Lab'
coolster50
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Good work Harry, This is the meaningful technology mine rescue needs to get to
the next level of rescue in mining. Required contest training will only slow the
process. Keep up the good work.
________________________________________
From: MineRescue@yahoogroups.com [MineRescue@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of USMRA
[usmra@...]
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 8:17 AM
To: minerescue@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [USMRA] Twin Lakes native shafts 'Disaster Lab'

Twin Lakes native shafts ‘Disaster Lab’
Kenosha News
April 23, 2009


Twin Lakes native Harry Lovely, a mine safety instructor for Colorado, will be
featured today in an episode of “Disaster Lab” on the National Geographic
Channel.

Lovely, 46, who sets up lifelike disaster drills for rescue workers in an
underground mine about 40 miles west of Denver, was called upon to help test a
new, state-of-the-art search-and-rescue robot.

The testing is part of “Disaster Lab: Collapse,” which will air at 4 p.m. The
robot is initially being tested for use in building disaster rescue efforts.

“If it works out well enough for homes then maybe it will have applications in
the mining industry,” Lovely said during a break in training Wednesday.

Lovely helped create a scenario in the Edgar Mine that sends the robot through
an opening too narrow for a rescue worker, into a smoky, dark space where it
then uses a thermal-imaging camera to locate people behind piles of rubble.
Further tests of the robot were conducted in Texas and West Virginia.

For disaster specialist Tim Samaras and a team of engineers, getting the robot
to overcome the rubble was a huge stumbling block. Prior to the Colorado test,
the robot failed to climb loose rock. But, outfitted with new vulcanized rubber
wheels, the robot performed well in the mine.

Lovely was pleased with the robot’s ability to locate people in such conditions.
Had the smoke been real, the actors would have been unconscious.

“Knowing where the people are is very, very crucial,” he said.

Lovely started working for the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and
Safety in 2006, the same year 12 people were killed in the Sago mine disaster in
West Virginia.

The Edgar Mine, located in Idaho Springs, Colo., is the only underground
facility of its kind in the United States. Rescue workers are exposed to cave-in
situations, fire, smoke and communication breakdowns during the exercises.

_______________________________
U. S. Mine Rescue Association
http://www.usmra.com

Home of the largest and most comprehensive
collection of mine safety training materials on the web
http://www.usmra.com/repository/

Take the Challenge
http://www.usmra.com/rockysquiz/

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#6984 From: "Cool, John" <jcool@...>
Date: Sat Apr 25, 2009 1:01 am
Subject: RE: [USMRA] Industrial Scientific MX6 IBriD
coolster50
Send Email Send Email
 
How about a test for the MX 6 for gas men on a team? I think we may be able to
provide one.
________________________________________
From: MineRescue@yahoogroups.com [MineRescue@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of USMRA
[usmra@...]
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 1:59 PM
To: minerescue@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [USMRA] Industrial Scientific MX6 IBriD

I'm looking for any written test materials that may be available for the new
Industrial Scientific MX6 IBriD meters.

http://www.indsci.com/products/portable/mx6.aspx?id=106

Rob

#6985 From: "Lovely, Harry" <harry.lovely@...>
Date: Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:06 pm
Subject: RE: [USMRA] Twin Lakes native shafts 'Disaster Lab'
hal2537
Send Email Send Email
 
Thanks,

-----Original Message-----
From: MineRescue@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MineRescue@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Cool, John
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 6:57 PM
To: MineRescue@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [USMRA] Twin Lakes native shafts 'Disaster Lab'

Good work Harry, This is the meaningful technology mine rescue needs to
get to the next level of rescue in mining. Required contest training
will only slow the process. Keep up the good work.
________________________________________
From: MineRescue@yahoogroups.com [MineRescue@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of USMRA [usmra@...]
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 8:17 AM
To: minerescue@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [USMRA] Twin Lakes native shafts 'Disaster Lab'

Twin Lakes native shafts 'Disaster Lab'
Kenosha News
April 23, 2009


Twin Lakes native Harry Lovely, a mine safety instructor for Colorado,
will be featured today in an episode of "Disaster Lab" on the National
Geographic Channel.

Lovely, 46, who sets up lifelike disaster drills for rescue workers in
an underground mine about 40 miles west of Denver, was called upon to
help test a new, state-of-the-art search-and-rescue robot.

The testing is part of "Disaster Lab: Collapse," which will air at 4
p.m. The robot is initially being tested for use in building disaster
rescue efforts.

"If it works out well enough for homes then maybe it will have
applications in the mining industry," Lovely said during a break in
training Wednesday.

Lovely helped create a scenario in the Edgar Mine that sends the robot
through an opening too narrow for a rescue worker, into a smoky, dark
space where it then uses a thermal-imaging camera to locate people
behind piles of rubble. Further tests of the robot were conducted in
Texas and West Virginia.

For disaster specialist Tim Samaras and a team of engineers, getting the
robot to overcome the rubble was a huge stumbling block. Prior to the
Colorado test, the robot failed to climb loose rock. But, outfitted with
new vulcanized rubber wheels, the robot performed well in the mine.

Lovely was pleased with the robot's ability to locate people in such
conditions. Had the smoke been real, the actors would have been
unconscious.

"Knowing where the people are is very, very crucial," he said.

Lovely started working for the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining
and Safety in 2006, the same year 12 people were killed in the Sago mine
disaster in West Virginia.

The Edgar Mine, located in Idaho Springs, Colo., is the only underground
facility of its kind in the United States. Rescue workers are exposed to
cave-in situations, fire, smoke and communication breakdowns during the
exercises.

_______________________________
U. S. Mine Rescue Association
http://www.usmra.com

Home of the largest and most comprehensive
collection of mine safety training materials on the web
http://www.usmra.com/repository/

Take the Challenge
http://www.usmra.com/rockysquiz/

Create-your-own Excel and PowerPoint training games
http://www.usmra.com/repository/category/games/training_games.htm

When leaving our web site, click on any of the Google Ads found there.
Your support in this way keeps our site free.




------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links

#6986 From: Rescue1UK@...
Date: Sat Apr 25, 2009 6:35 pm
Subject: Re: [USMRA] Twin Lakes native shafts 'Disaster Lab'
rescue1uk2000
Send Email Send Email
 
Harry, thats echo'd from around the world too (well at least here in the UK).
It's the best way to train and gain experience without responding to an actual incident.
 
Brian

#6987 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 9:35 am
Subject: Nova Scotia's legacy of coal
usmra
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Nova Scotia’s legacy of coal
The Chronicle Herald - Canada
April 26, 2009
 

EDITOR'S NOTE: In his prologue to Coal Black Heart, author and journalist John DeMont takes readers back to May 9, 1992, when an underground explosion ripped apart the Westray mine in Pictou County, killing 26 miners. In the days and weeks that he covered the story, DeMont came to realize that coal — a mineral forged from plants that had decayed over millions of years — played a leading role in Nova Scotia’s political, social and business history.

ONE MORNING four days after the Westray explosion, I drove through Stellarton, past what’s left of Mount Rundell — the mansion where the mine manager and his chatelaine once entertained British tycoons, Canadian prime ministers and visiting royalty. Past the long- closed mine entrances and what remained of the coal company shacks. With time, the inexorable forces of "progress" and global economics had intervened in Pictou County and the other coalfields of Nova Scotia. Capital fled elsewhere. Oil began to replace coal as the choice to power the world’s electrical grid. By then, many of Pictou County’s coalfields were simply exhausted: the collieries too old, deep and expensive to operate; the coal deposit more heavily mined than any comparably sized area anywhere on the continent. A few mines managed to live a hand-to-mouth existence. Eventually, the last miners punched out there too. People drifted away. Businesses closed. As the rest of the world hurtled toward the new millennium, anyone could tell that the towns of Pictou County were redolent of the past, not the future. Even if stories of great drama and heartbreak lingered just below the dust.

It’s an unseasonably warm spring day, as if the land barely remembers what happened just days ago. By the time I arrive, mourners have already filled the white clapboard United Church in the settlement of Eureka, at the forks of the East River. So I stand outside amidst the bulky men with the ill-fitting suits, the women in their Sunday dresses, the haunted-eyed seniors and confused kids. "Amazing Grace" sounds through two loudspeakers mounted outside the church. Birds chirp in the nearby trees. Heads bowed, we listen to the voice of the Reverend Marion Patterson eulogizing Lawrence Bell, twenty-five, whose body was one of the first to be pulled from the Westray mine. Patterson speaks of Bell’s love of hockey and the guitar, his zest for life. "Let us not say goodbye to Larry," she concludes, "just good night." Then the five hundred or so mourners walk to their cars and begin snaking their way to the cemetery.

Throughout the day, in the churches and graveyards of Pictou County, the heartbreaking scene will be repeated. By then the bodies of fifteen men have been recovered. For a couple of days the families of the remaining trapped miners will cling to the slim hope that the rescue crews working night and day in the pitch-black, rubble-strewn shaft will find more alive. Six days after the explosion, Curragh Resources, the owner, will call off the search, leaving the last eleven bodies underground.

Best estimates are that 500 million tons of coal have been harvested in the history of Nova Scotia. About 2,500 men — more than the province lost in the Great War — have died in the process. That works out to about five lives lost per million tons of coal — about triple the death rate in modern-day China, where the number of coal-mining deaths is viewed as a global scandal. The Nova Scotia total doesn’t even include the victims of silicosis, emphysema and a host of cancers and heart ailments related to a lifetime in the pit.

The Pictou collieries have claimed their share of the dead. The weird faulting and dramatic variations in seam thickness have caused frequent roof collapses and made the timber, coal and rock roar down with a terrible sound. There are other ways to die, too. In 1866 someone named McCarney perished because he "fell 15 ft. and struck a timber." Four years later the paradoxically named John Luckman was "crushed by cage." In 1873 Malcolm McIsaac died by virtue of being "crushed by back balance." A year later W.C. Jackson and John Potts both died due to "rope breaking in shaft." Four years after that, Francis Colin was "run over by a pit tub," while in 1883 D. Baillie was "killed by run away rake." Men went to meet their maker because of "suffocation," because of being "crushed by machinery," being "run over by train of hoppers," due to a "premature explosion of shot from use of iron tamping bars," being "caught by box on balance while putting his clothes on for home" or after being "whirled around a shaft."

Official numbers are sketchy, but best estimates are that since 1827, some six hundred men have died in the Pictou mines. The "damps"— the term English miners used to collectively refer to all foul, noxious, poisonous gases found in collieries — have taken many away. By itself, methane, found in huge quantities throughout the field, is merely flammable; when mixed in the right concentrations with oxygen — 9.5 percent methane being the mixture’s most volatile point — the gas becomes explosive. A spark is all it takes: a pick hitting a piece of scrap iron, a shovel striking coal contaminated with pyrites. Historian James Cameron figures that the Pictou field has suffered forty-eight major fires over the years. At one time or another, virtually every mine in the Stellarton area has been shut down because of fire or explosion.

Sometimes it’s impossible to know precisely what happened; other times the stories read with grim clarity. On May 13, 1873, a miner named Robert McLeod set a routine gunpowder charge in the uppermost coal face of the Drummond Colliery, in Westville, a few kilometres from Plymouth. According to accounts, an unusual amount of gas was ignited, filling the mine with smoke. Making matters worse, the ventilation system stopped working. The manager ordered an evacuation. As the miners were leaving and a squad of firefighters were entering the mine, an explosion ripped through the tunnels. Miners from nearby collieries arrived and tried to rescue the trapped men and boys, whose moans echoed upward through the airshaft. A second explosion hit, killing one of the rescuers. In desperation, the mine was sealed to starve the fire of oxygen. On the surface, "men and women wander about in groups," the newspapers reported in the days following the catastrophe, "their saddened countenances betokening the great grief that has fallen upon them."

Five years later, an explosion occurred in the Foord Pit in nearby Albion Mines, killing Jason Nering, James Mitchell, Lewis Thomas and Edward Savage. The rolls of the dead included Donald McKinnon, Charles Boram, the MacDonald boys Alexander, Angus, Murdoch and Ronald Angus McGilvary and Hugh McElvie. Also no more were Laughlin Morrison, Thomas Sullivan, Dan Cummings, Merles Benoit, Rory McKinnon (father and son) and twenty-three others.

On January 18, 1918, the Allan Shaft — the most dangerous in a risky lot of seams — exploded. This time the Pictou County church bells rang out for Thomas Adderly Jr. and Clement Barcey, for Robert Winton and Peter Zomoskie, for Isaac Luther and Victor Humblet. Some families suffered more than most: the Bartholomews (Louis and Joseph), the Hanuses (Alfred and Cammile), the Kayenses (Felican and Joseph). Joseph and John McAulay were also among the dead, alongside William and John McLellan, Flori and, Louis and August Vaast, and Desire and Sylvia Laderie. All told, eighty-eight men died that day. Most every family felt the pain including the Johnsons, who lost a clan member named James.

I noticed, examining the rolls of the dead, that another Johnson, Peter, was a solo fatality during an accident in the McBean Mine in 1957. I have no idea if he and James were related. But I’m still willing to bet that there was some sort of connection between the two of them and Eugene Johnson, who was laid to rest in a lovely treed cemetery in a nearby hamlet on the same day that I attended Lawrence Bell’s funeral.

Excerpted from Coal Black Heart. Copyright 2009 John DeMont. Published in Canada by Doubleday Canada.  All rights reserved

_______________________________
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Home of the largest and most comprehensive
collection of mine safety training materials on the web
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#6988 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 9:51 pm
Subject: MSHA urges public to 'Stay Out and Stay Alive'
usmra
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MSHA urges public to 'Stay Out and Stay Alive'
PRN Newswire
April 27, 2009
 
 
ARLINGTON, Va. - For the 11th consecutive year, the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) today launched its annual "Stay Out-Stay Alive" public safety campaign to warn outdoor enthusiasts - especially children - about the dangers of playing on mine property. Since 1999, nearly 300 people have lost their lives in recreational accidents at mine properties. Almost half of all victims are 15 to 25 years of age, and the most common cause of death is drowning in a quarry.

"No matter how attractive they may appear, active and abandoned mines are not playgrounds. If you're not trained or authorized to enter the property, stay away," said Michael A. Davis, MSHA's deputy assistant secretary of labor for operations. "As we near the end of another school year and prepare for lots of outdoor activities, children and young adults must be aware of the potential dangers that exist." During the month-long campaign, which runs from April 27 to May 25, MSHA and its partners will visit schools, scouting groups and other venues to talk to young people about the dangers of playing on active and abandoned mine property.

Old surface mines, which are popular spots for ATV enthusiasts, contain hills of loose materials or refuse heaps that can easily collapse and cause deadly rollovers.

Underground mines can have hidden shafts, flooded or airless sections, or deadly gases; tunnels can cave-in; and unused or misfired explosives can be set off by the slightest disturbance or touch.

Water-filled quarries - the mines that claim the most lives every year - have slippery slopes and unstable rock ledges, and the water may conceal old machinery and sharp objects left behind after a mining operation closes. Even expert swimmers may encounter trouble in the dangerously cold and deceptively deep waters. Drowning is far and away the most common cause of recreational accidents on mine property, accounting for two out of three fatalities over the past 10 years.

Dozens of federal and state agencies, private organizations, businesses and individuals are active partners in "Stay Out-Stay Alive." For further information about the national campaign, visit www.msha.gov.

 
 
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Home of the largest and most comprehensive
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#6989 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Tue Apr 28, 2009 2:02 pm
Subject: Mine Safety Training Center to open in Ohio
usmra
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Mine Safety Training Center to open in Ohio
Pit & Quarry - USA
April 28, 2009
 

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) is opening its Mine Safety Training Center with a ceremony on May 1 in Cadiz, Ohio. The new facility will provide life-saving training for Ohio miners, local first-responders and others who conduct business in and around mines.

The center will improve the ODNR Division of Mineral Resources Management (DMRM) Mine Safety Program, enhancing mine safety inspections and accident prevention, guaranteeing mine safety certification and upgrading mine safety training for all Ohioans.

_______________________________
U. S. Mine Rescue Association
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Home of the largest and most comprehensive
collection of mine safety training materials on the web
http://www.usmra.com/repository/
 
 
Create-your-own Excel and PowerPoint training games
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#6990 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:38 am
Subject: Feds come to fired miner's defense
usmra
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Feds come to fired miner's defense
Kentucky.com - Lexington,KY,USA
April 29, 2009
 

Federal officials have filed a request for a coal miner to get back his job after he was fired, allegedly for reporting a potential safety violation at a Harlan County underground mine.

A federal administrative judge could order that Billy Brannon, 29, be reinstated while he pursues a claim that the company, Panther Mining LLC, discriminated against him.

"It is rare for miners in the non-union mines of Eastern Kentucky to speak out about safety matters, and it has taken a great deal of courage for Mr. Brannon to insist on a safe workplace at Panther Mining," Brannon's attorneys, Tony Oppegard and Wes Ad dington, said in a statement.

A Panther Mining spokesman said the company did nothing wrong in firing Brannon.

Brannon, of Mary Alice, worked at Panther Mining's No. 1 mine in Cloverlick Hollow, near Cumberland.

He was fired March 27, the day after he initiated a report to federal and state regulators about exposed electrical wires at the mine, according to Oppegard, a former federal and state mine-safety official.

An investigator for the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, Stanley Sturgill, concluded that Panther fired Brannon for making the safety complaint on March 26.

The termination violated federal law that says miners can't be discriminated against for making such complaints, Sturgill said in an affidavit.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Labor, which includes MSHA, asked that Panther Mining be ordered to temporarily reinstate Brannon, who was a general laborer at the mine.

The request was made to the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. An administrative law judge will decide whether to issue the order.

There is a low bar for that determination: whether Brannon's complaint is frivolous.

Oppegard said that standard protects miners. Congress wanted miners involved in keeping their workplaces safe and knew some would face discrimination for trying, Oppegard said.

The Mine Safety and Health Act is the only federal employment law under which a judge can order a company to reinstate a worker while a discrimination claim is pending, Oppegard said.

If Brannon is reinstated, the order would last until the commission rules on his claim, which could take two years, Oppegard said.

"In our view, Panther Mining's discharge of Mr. Brannon is a classic example of discrimination by a coal operator that won't tolerate miners complaining about safety matters," said Oppegard and Addington, who is with the Appalachian Citizens Law Center in Whitesburg.

Oppegard said Brannon's case is significant because miners need to know their rights — which include being able to make safety complaints and to not work in conditions they think are unsafe. And many don't know about the temporary-reinstatement provision.

Ross Kegan, vice president of operations for Panther's parent company, Black Mountain Resources, said Brannon's firing had nothing to do with his attempt to report a safety issue.

Rather, Brannon was fired for many instances of poor work performance, Kegan said.

Black Mountain recognizes and supports miners' rights to report safety issues to the company and regulators, and the company quickly responds to such reports, Kegan said.

Kegan also said Brannon had filed three previous discrimination complaints, and MSHA said they were unfounded.

"He's batting 0-for-3," Kegan said. The company also expects to be vindicated on the claim that it fired Brannon for reporting a safety issue, Kegan said

Oppegard, however, said MSHA had made a determination on only one of Brannon's previous discrimination claims.

The fact that the agency decided not to pursue it doesn't mean it wasn't valid, said Oppegard, who added that he has won claims for miners even after MSHA didn't pursue them.

And Oppegard questioned why the coal company hadn't fired Brannon sooner if he was a bad employee.

Before Panther Mining fired him, Brannon had complained that a foreman at another Black Mountain Resources mine had assaulted him by smashing his cap light with a hammer.

At the Panther mine, the company forced him to walk to machinery that he was maintaining rather than drive a buggy — which meant he didn't have required access to emergency breathing equipment — because he had reported a safety issue, Brannon said.

Brannon also said that after he met with a federal inspector in February, the mine superintendent, Mark Shelton, cursed at him and switched him from first shift to the less-desirable second shift.

The company disputed Brannon's claims.

_______________________________
U. S. Mine Rescue Association
http://www.usmra.com
 
Home of the largest and most comprehensive
collection of mine safety training materials on the web
http://www.usmra.com/repository/
 
 
Create-your-own Excel and PowerPoint training games
http://www.usmra.com/repository/category/games/training_games.htm
 
When leaving our web site, click on any of the Google Ads found there.
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#6991 From: "USMRA" <usmra@...>
Date: Wed Apr 29, 2009 2:00 pm
Subject: Five Killed in Coal Mine Flooding in Central China
usmra
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Five Killed in Coal Mine Flooding in Central China
CRIENGLISH.com - Beijing,China
April 29, 2009
 

Five miners were killed in a colliery flooding in central China's Hunan Province, a local official said Wednesday.

A shaft of Pijing Coal Mine in Anhua County flooded at about 11 a.m. Monday when 10 miners were working underground, said Zou Xiongbin, deputy magistrate of the county.

Four workers escaped, but six were trapped.

Rescuers had been removing water using eight pumps.

Xiang Fuquan was rescued Tuesday night after being trapped for 36 hours.His was conscious and in a stable condition under medical observation.

Three bodies were recovered early Wednesday and the last two were found at about 6 p.m..

An initial investigation showed that workers dug through a discarded shaft by accident, where the water flooded in, said Zou.

_______________________________
U. S. Mine Rescue Association
http://www.usmra.com
 
Home of the largest and most comprehensive
collection of mine safety training materials on the web
http://www.usmra.com/repository/
 
 
Create-your-own Excel and PowerPoint training games
http://www.usmra.com/repository/category/games/training_games.htm
 
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