Occupational Safety and Health NewsAlert

MSHA AND OSHA RELEASE SEMI-ANNUAL REGULATORY AGENDAS

For clients and friends of Jackson Kelly PLLC
Volume 8, Number 2
©2012 Jackson Kelly PLLC

 

          On Friday, January 20, 2012, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) released its semi-annual Regulatory Agenda.  The agenda includes numerous proposed items for both the Mine Safety and Health Administration (“MSHA”) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”). 

 

HOUSE PASSES TWO ANTI-REGULATORY ACTS—THE REGULATORY FLEXIBILITY IMPROVEMENTS ACT AND REGULATORY ACCOUNTABILITY ACT.

For clients and friends of Jackson Kelly PLLC
Volume 7, Number 29
©2011 Jackson Kelly PLLC

 

        On December 1, 2011, the House passed the Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2011 (H.R. 527), which amends the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980.  Supporters of the legislation stated that the legislation is intended to ensure a complete analysis of potential impacts on small of entities of new rulemaking.  Others openly admitted it is an attempt to reign in new rulemaking by regulatory agencies.  The primary features of the bill include:

SEC ADOPTS DODD-FRANK MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS

For clients and friends of Jackson Kelly PLLC

Volume 7, Number 28

©2011 Jackson Kelly PLLC

 

        Section 1503 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law on July 21, 2010, and requires mining companies to include certain information about mine safety and health in the quarterly and annual reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).  Last December, the SEC issued proposed rules to implement the mine safety reporting requirements.  Yesterday, the SEC released its final rules implementing § 1503 of the Act.  The rules become effective 30 days following their publication, which is expected sometime next week in the Federal Register.

 

MSHA’S PROPOSED RULE REGARDING PROXIMITY DETECTION

For clients and friends of Jackson Kelly PLLC
Volume 7, Number 19
©2011 Jackson Kelly PLLC

 

     On Wednesday, August 31, 2011, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (“MSHA”) published a proposed rule at 30 C.F.R. § 75.1732 requiring continuous mining machines used in underground coal mines to be equipped with proximity detection systems.  76 Fed. Reg. 54163.  The proposed rule applies to all continuous mining machines, except full-face continuous mining machines. Proximity detection refers to technology that uses electronic sensors on mining machinery to detect the presence of personnel or other machinery within a certain distance.  These systems can be programmed to send warning signals and stop machine movement when the programmed areas are breached. 

 

ROCK DUST FINAL RULE

For clients and friends of Jackson Kelly PLLC
Volume 7, Number 11
©2011 Jackson Kelly PLLC

 

    The Mine Safety and Health Administration ("MSHA") published its final rule regarding Maintenance of Incombustible Content of Rock Dust in Underground Coal Mines (30 C.F.R. § 75.403) on June 21, 2011. This final rule for 30 C.F.R. § 75.403 replaces MSHA's Emergency Temporary Standard ("ETS") with a wholesale adoption of the requirements contained in the ETS. Under the final rule, mine operators are required to maintain the incombustible content of combined coal dust, rock dust, and other dust to at least 80 percent in underground areas of bituminous coal mines. In addition, the rule requires that the incombustible content of combined dust be increased 0.4 percent for each 0.1 percent of methane present.  

MSHA OFFERS NEW PATTERN OF VIOLATION SCREENING TOOL FOR ALL MINE OPERATORS ON WEBSITE

 

For clients and friends of Jackson Kelly PLLC
Volume 7, Number 8
©2011 Jackson Kelly PLLC
 

         Last week, MSHA informed the mining industry that the long-promised web-based program for violation history screening was available to the industry.  MSHA’s new monitoring tool, available at   http://www.msha.gov/POV/POVsinglesource.asp,  allows a mine operator to determine, based on the most recent data available, how a specific mine matches up with the criteria for a potential pattern of violations.  The system will be updated on the 15^th of each month. 

MSHA TO PUBLISH PROPOSED RULE TO REVISE EXISTING POV REGULATION

For clients and friends of Jackson Kelly PLLC
Volume 7, Number 7
©2011 Jackson Kelly PLLC

        

        In advance of its February 2, 2011, publication in the Federal Register, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (“MSHA”) today held a conference call regarding its proposed rulemaking on Pattern of Violations (“POV”), which was made available for review in advance on-line.  The pre-publication copy of the proposed rule can be found at this link: http://s.dol.gov/CQ.  Once published, the proposed rule will be available at the Federal Register website.

MSHA PROPOSES EXPANDING SCOPE OF EXAMINATIONS OF WORK AREAS IN UNDERGROUND COAL MINES

For clients and friends of Jackson Kelly PLLC

Volume 7, Number 1

©2011 Jackson Kelly PLLC

 

        On December 27, 2010, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (“MSHA”) announced a proposed rulemaking to revise the requirements for pre-shift, supplemental, on-shift, and weekly examinations of underground coal mines. 75 Fed. Reg. 81165 (Dec. 27, 2010). Under the existing standards for these examinations, operators are required to identify, correct, and record hazardous conditions.

SEC ISSUES PROPOSED RULE FOR MINE SAFETY REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

For clients and friends of Jackson Kelly PLLC

Volume 6, Number 40

©2010 Jackson Kelly PLLC

 

        The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has issued a proposed rule and is soliciting comments regarding implementation of the mine safety reporting requirements included in Section 1503 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”), which was signed into law on July 21, 2010. The law requires that publicly-traded companies that are operators of a coal or other mine (or that have a subsidiary that is an operator of a coal or other mine) include various mine safety violations in their reports filed with the SEC. The proposed rule affects filings on Forms 8-K, 10-K, 10-Q, 20-F, and 40-F.

MSHA ANNOUNCES DATES AND LOCATIONS OF PUBLIC HEARINGS ON NEW RESPIRABLE COAL DUST STANDARD

For clients and friends of Jackson Kelly PLLC

Volume 6, Number 36

©2010 Jackson Kelly PLLC

 

        The Mine Safety and Health Administration (“MSHA”) has announced the dates and specific locations for six public hearings on MSHA’s proposed rule to lower a miner’s exposure to respirable coal mine dust. The proposed rule would impact miners’ exposure to respirable coal mine dust by lowering the existing exposure limits for miners; implement full-shift sampling; redefine the term “normal production shift”; and allow for the use of a single full-shift sample to determine compliance. The proposed rule would also require the use of Continuous Personal Dust Monitors for exposure monitoring and expand requirements for medical surveillance.