The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) reported that during its August special impact inspections, 131 citations and 11 orders were issued at 12 coal mines.
Mines subject to these inspections receive extra attention from MSHA due to previous issues with the agency, including poor compliance history or compliance concerns. Recent issues include mines that failure to control dust and operators attempting to prevent MSHA from finding violations.
“We continue to see mines ignoring required ventilation curtains needed to control methane gas and respirable coal dust that that causes black lung,” says Joseph Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. “The new respirable dust rule requires mine operators to conduct thorough exams each shift to ensure required ventilation and dust controls are in place, with top mine officials certifying those exams.”
In addition to ventilation issues, other mines received citations for allowing materials to accumulate in a belt conveyor entry, as well as inadequate examination of hazardous conditions along the beltline, accumulations of combustible materials, misaligned belts, inadequate cable insulation, no ventilation line curtain installed and inadequate maintenance on the continuous mining machine.
