Occupational Safety and Health NewsAlert

MSHA PUBLISHES CHANGES TO PART 50 AND PART 100 TO PERMIT AUTOMATED PENALTY ASSESSMENT FOR LEGISLATIVELY MANDATED MINIMUMS

For clients and friends of Jackson Kelly PLLC

Volume 5, Number 24

©2009 Jackson Kelly PLLC

 

    On December 29, 2009, the Department of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration, published a direct final rule making non-substantive organizational changes to Part 50.  74 Fed. Reg. 68918.  The purpose of the rule is to “improve the efficiency and effectiveness of MSHA’s assessment process.”  The rule will become effective on March 29, 2010, unless the Agency receives significant adverse comments by March 1, 2010.

UPDATES AND CHANGES FOR MSHA IN 2010

For clients and friends of Jackson Kelly PLLC

Volume 5, Number 23

©2009 Jackson Kelly PLLC

 

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (“MSHA”) recently released its regulatory agenda for 2010.  In the coming year, MSHA will focus on a comprehensive black lung reduction strategy, developed mainly from recommendations for eliminating lung disease among mine workers made by a Federal Advisory Committee in 1996.  In addition, MSHA’s major projects for action over the next year focus predominately on coal mine issues and include the following:

 

Coal Mine Personal Dust Monitors.  In January 2009, MSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (“NIOSH”) jointly released a proposal to revise requirements for approval of coal dust sampling devices to clear the way for approval of the continuous personal dust monitor (“CPDM”).  This device, worn by underground coal miners, would take instantaneous respirable dust readings in real-time, thereby continuously monitoring dust level exposures during a shift.  According to MSHA’s semi-annual regulatory agenda from May 2009, MSHA set April 2010 as the deadline for a final rule. 

UPDATES AND CHANGES FOR OSHA IN 2010

For clients and friends of Jackson Kelly PLLC

Volume 5, Number 22

©2009 Jackson Kelly PLLC

 Dr. Michaels is confirmed as the Assistant Secretary 

            On December 9, 2009, the Senate confirmed David Michael, Ph.D., MPH to be the Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”).  Dr. Michaels is an epidemiologist and an advocate for the scientific communities’ effort to protect the integrity of science on which public health and environmental policies and regulations are based.  Before coming to OSHA, he was a professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.  From 1998 to 2001, Dr. Michaels served as the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental, Safety and Health.  In that position, he was the chief architect of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, a program to compensate nuclear weapons workers who contracted occupational illnesses as a result of exposure to radiation, beryllium, and other hazards.