Michigan State Grants Mine Safety Training Newsletter 97-3 Highlights Inside Program Updates - New Respirator Fit Testing Program Deaths in Sand and Gravel and Stone are High What's the big deal about silicosis by David Couillard. Traffic Control at Mines -MSHA Requires Rules and Road Signs Do your Competitors Follow the Same Rules as You? Portable Plant ID Numbers Needed for Each Screening Plant Man Sentenced for Mine-Safety Violations Miners Rights Events of Interest to Miners Manager - Dave Carlson 906/487-2453, Email dcarlson@mtu.edu Mining Engineering Department Mary Ewert - Clerk 906/487-2272 Michigan Technological University Program Director/Department Chair - Francis Otuonye 906/487-2610 Houghton, MI 49931 Contact Dave Carlson at the phone number listed above for assistance with setting up a safety training workshop. Contact Mary Ewert for locating suitable videos and other training materials or handouts for your in-house workshops. If we can't answer your safety-related questions we will find out or put you in touch with someone who can. Program Updates New Respirator Fit Testing Program Offered - During the past quarter Program personnel at MTU have developed the capability to do respirator fit testing for mines on an as-needed basis. This program will be funded entirely by user fees. Costs to users will include travel and labor costs during travel to and from the mine using the service as well as labor for doing the fit testing. Call Dave Carlson at the above number to get a cost estimate. Deaths in Sand and Gravel and Stone are High In an April 3, 1997 press release, MSHA Chief Davitt McAteer pointed out that crushed stone, sand and gravel and gold and silver mines have had an unsettling number of fatal accidents. Crushed stone has accounted for 65 miner deaths since 1994, sand and gravel 30, and gold and silver 25. An MSHA analysis of metal non-metal mine fatal accidents for the period 1994-1996 reveals the following information: 56 % of all metal non-metal mining fatalities were in stone and sand and gravel operations. Contractors also comprised a significant portion (roughly 20 %) of the miners trained by our program. 24 % of the nations metal and nonmetal mine fatalities involved contractors which reported only 9% of all employee hours. Out of 18 powered haulage fatalities during 1996, seven were by front end loaders, four by service trucks, three by haul trucks and one each by fork lift, utility truck, railroad car and conveyor. Of those killed, 38 % were mobile equipment operators, 22 % were maintenance personnel, and 28 % were pedestrians. 1996 Truck fatalities were: 4 truck drivers - three over the edge of the road/dump and one into a pond. 1- walking contractor employee run over by a 35 ton haul truck 1-electrician in a utility vehicle run over by a 240 ton haul truck 1-mechanic pinned against a shop wall by an unlocked 35-ton haul truck. 1996 Front End Loader Fatalities were: 2 - defective brakes 1- trainee who fell off the vehicle 1 - plant operator who was run over 2 - (mechanic and laborer) pinned by lift mechanism on skidsteer 1- mechanic pinned against framework by the bucket he was working out of. Three of these deaths could have been avoided by requiring that vehicle operation take place only by personnel who are seated in the driver's seat with the seat belt properly fastened (safety features on new loaders usually require that the driver be seated and fastened in for the wheels and hydraulics tol function. Loaders (even small skid-steer loaders) and their hydraulically-driven components will easily crush any body parts that come into contact with them. Two deaths could have been prevented if vehicle brakes had been properly maintained. A plant operator's life would have been saved if he had stayed clear of vehicle travel areas. Front end loader operators can't possibly keep track of personnel on foot. Operator trainers are in danger of falling out when riding as passengers on front end loaders not equipped to carry passengers, and alternate training approaches should be seriously considered. Equipment with extended booms can be dangerous, not only around electrical lines, but by tipping which killed two operators. A hydraulic shovel turned over into a pond and a rubber- tired crane turned over backing down a 12 % grade. A hydraulic drill killed the driller's helper by running over him. Statistics reveal that employees over 40 years old are more likely to be killed than those above 19 an below 40. Nationally, the highest frequency lost time accident for sand and gravel operations was handling materials at 325. This includes back injuries and the like. Slips and falls of a person was second at 277, use of hand tools was third at 146, powered haulage was fourth at 117 (34 front end loader, 32 truck and 51 other including conveyors etc.), and operation of machinery was fifth at 103. Companies must continually encourage workers to identify dangerous job steps, and help them arrive at suitable alternative approaches to overcoming these dangers. If an accident can happen, in time it will happen Control charts, as discussed in our previous newsletter (97-2), can help report accident and near-miss data in an easy to understand, easy to use fashion. What's the big deal about Silicosis? by David Couillard, MSHA North Central District Office, Duluth, MN Since the National Campaign to Eliminate Silicosis was announced by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich last fall, some of my mining friends have asked: Why is MSHA so concerned about silicosis all of a sudden? We've been sampled many times and we've never had an overexposure." After attending the 1997 National Conference to Eliminate Silicosis in Washington, D.C., in March, I have a much clearer idea why MSHA, OSHA, NIOSH, NISA (National Industrial Sand Association), NSA (National Stone Association), the AFL-CIO and dozens of other organizations feel that the continuing threat of silicosis in the workplace is a big deal. In a moving talk during the first plenary session, Charlene Howard reminded me and the more than 600 other conference participants that silicosis is still killing people. Her husband, Terry, died in 1995 at the age of 45, three years after undergoing a double lung transplant. His original lungs had been scarred and stiffened from years of working in clouds of silica-laden dust as a rock driller at a surface coal mine in southeastern Kentucky. As Mrs. Howard told Terry's story, I found myself thinking of my old friend Julian "Ole" Olson, who contracted silicosis after years of exposure to silica dust in Wisconsin pits and quarries. Ole spent the last years of his working life teaching other miners how to avoid getting into the same fix. The last time I saw him, he became breathless and exhausted from walking across a street. Between gasps, he said, "You know, I always figured the dust I inhaled all those years wasn't good for me, but I never thought I'd end up like this. In whatever time I have left, I want to do all I can to keep it from happening to anyone else." A few months later, Ole needed auxiliary oxygen to assist his breathing and he had to retire. Not long after, he died. At about the same time, Terry Howard was enduring the exposures that would kill him more than 10 years later. While silicosis cannot be cured, it is 100 percent preventable and the Department of Labor has been heavily involved in prevention efforts for many years. Secretary Frances Perkins held national conferences on silicosis in 1936 and 1940 and produced a film, "Stop Silicosis." Prevention efforts have resulted in steady progress. In 1968, there were about 1,200 deaths from silicosis in the U.S. This year, about 250 American workers will probably die from the disease. But as Leo Gerard of the USWA said in his address to the conference, "After 60 years, we should not feel any pride by being able to say we have made some progress when the causes and the remedies are so clear." Indeed, if another conference needs to be held 60 years from now, our present efforts will have failed. The good news is that a lot of people are committed to doing whatever needs to be done to eliminate silicosis in their workplaces. In the workshop I coordinated, called "Best Practices for Workers," salaried and hourly associates form Badger Mining Corporation explained how they worked together to measure and control exposures at silica sand operations. Workers at BMC are thoroughly trained in the hazards of silica exposures, sophisticated sampling techniques and state of the art engineering controls. At BMC, empowering workers to stop production to correct problems is not an issue. It is just doing what is expected. Other workshops highlighted many other stories of companies that are succeeding in eliminating silica exposures through strong management commitment and cooperation from workers. Key to obtaining worker cooperation is effective training. In a workshop called "Training Workers: What Works? What Doesn’t?" Earle Andrews from U.S. Silica, Berkeley Springs, W.Va. presented excerpts from a dynamic, fast-moving course on silica hazards using Power Point presentation software. He had just finished teaching this course as major component of annual refresher training for U.S. Silica employees. Such innovative training approaches are essential, because prevention efforts are doomed to fail unless ignorance and complacency about hazards are overcome, and workers become active, informed participants. In the North Central District, we are currently planning a series of health seminars to help expand and improve silicosis prevention in the mining community. Because many operators need guidance in establishing prevention programs, the seminars will include practical, hands- on workshops on sampling techniques and engineering controls. They will be tailored to local needs and offered as often as necessary as part of our ongoing commitment to protect the health of miners. My personal goal is to do all I can to keep future workers form suffering the same fate as Ole Olson and Terry Howard. So what’s the big deal about silicosis? It’s still killing people, and we can do more to prevent it. If we all do our part, the only people who might be interested in holding another conference about this disease in 2057 will be medical historians, because silicosis will be extinct. Information About the Law and MSHA Traffic Control at Mines - MSHA Requires Rules and Road Signs The law as printed in 30 CFR part 56.9100 states that "To provide for the safe movement of self-propelled mobile equipment (a) Rules governing speed, right-of-way, direction of movement, and the use of headlights to assure appropriate visibility, shall be established and followed at each mine; and (b) Signs or signals that warn of hazardous conditions shall be placed at appropriate locations at each mine. Do Your Competitors Follow the Same Rules You Follow? - They Should! MSHA uses an ID number system to locate mines which require inspections. The law requires that anyone who is going to extract materials out of the earth’s surface and crush or screen them have an MSHA ID number prior to commencing work. If MSHA must discover an unidentified mine, the mine will be fined for not having an ID number. To obtain one call either the Marquette field office at 906/228-6805 or the Lansing field office at 517/377-1751. Contractors will be told by the mining companies they serve whether or not they need a number. Portable Plant ID Numbers Needed for Each Screening Plant - For portable plants which operate in different locations, an ID number will be assigned to the plant and not the pit. Example: If you have equipment (such as crushers, screen plants, wash plant, etc.), that can and do operate independently from the rest of the equipment and at different locations from the rest of the equipment, you must have a separate legal ID number for that operation also. Once you have an ID number, a commencement must be sent to MSHA before the plant is started. Also a commencement must be sent when the plant moves to a new location. When submitting commencements, be sure to include the ID number along with information on approximate starting dates and about how long the plat will be at that location. Man Sentenced for Mine-Safety Violations Cheyenne – A man who pleaded guilty to violating mine safety regulations was sentenced to 21 months in prison, said U.S. Attorney Dave Freudenthal. William J. Heyer pleaded guilty in January (97) to one count of false certification of federal mine safety and health training forms. Officials said the charge against Heyer stemmed from training classes he taught in Laramie in 1995. Heyer who owned a mine safety training company based in Evergreen, Colo., admitted to falsely certifying 10 individuals’ training safety forms, Freudenthal said in a release Wednesday. In addition to violating federal law, he said, Heyer’s actions placed those trainees in grave danger. The Federal Mine Safety Act requires that experienced miners receive eight hours of safety and health refresher training annually. Miners Rights - For Each of the following, indicate whether the statement is True or False (see answers at end of newsletter): Miners have the following rights: 1. The right to receive safety and health training. 2. The right to obtain an inspection of a mine where there are reasonable grounds to believe that an imminent danger, or a violation of the Act or a safety or health standard, exists. 3. The right to get paid during certain periods of time when a mine or a part of a mine has been closed because of a MSHA withdrawal order. 4. The right to be protected from discrimination based on the exercise of rights given by this act. 5. The right to have a representative of the miners accompany Federal inspectors during inspections at a mine. 6. The right to be informed of, and to participate in enforcement and legal proceedings under the Act. Events of Interest to Mine Operators Holmes Summer Meeting to Be Held in Tawas City August 7. Plan to attend this meeting which will be a mix consisting of an hour of classroom at the Holiday Inn in Tawas City and the rest of the day enjoying an agenda currently being put together by Don Ulman of US Gypsum. The Great Lakes District Council of the Holmes association is currently the safety association of Michigan’s mines. Mines can become members for a very small $30 annual fee by contacting Ken Cunningham at 517-792-8734.