Contact Dave Carlson to set up a Part 46 or Part 48 class for your employees. We will train one company or a combination of companies. You provide the site and we’ll provide the trainer. A knowledgeable person from your site should plan to attend the training to assist the instructor on site-specific topics. Contact Mary Ewert to borrow videos or purchase our "Surface Mine Instructor Reference and Trainee Review Manual". See our internet home page at the address listed above for other training materials.

Highlights Inside

Successful workshops were held at four locations in Michigan during February to assist mine operators in meeting the requirements of MSHA’s new noise and formerly-exempt surface nonmetal mine training standards.

Speakers included Harold Thornsbury of MSHA’s Educational Field Services Eastern Region, Bill Pomroy, Industrial Hygienist from MSHA’s Duluth, Minnesota Office, Gerald Holeman, MSHA’s Lansing, Michigan Field Office Supervisor, Paul Blome MSHA’s Marquette Field Office Supervisor, Michigan Office, and David Carlson, State Grants Program Manager at Michigan Technological University.

The workshops were put on by the Great Lakes District Council of the Holmes Safety Association in cooperation with MSHA and the State Grants Program at Michigan Technological University. Attendance records indicate the following numbers of participants: Marquette (2/1/00) - 55, Gaylord (2/3/00) - 99, Grand Rapids (2/8/00) - 66, and Ann Arbor (2/10/00) - 55 for a total of 275.

The new Title 30 CFR Part 46 MSHA training regulation published September 30, 1999 in the Federal Register, means all mining operations including sand and gravel will be subject to MSHA citations for training violations. Part 46 affects both large and small operations including: shell dredging, sand, gravel, surface stone, surface clay, colloidal phosphate, and surface limestone mines. Also included are marble, sandstone, slate, shale, traprock, koalin, cement, feldspar, and lime.

The new rule requires that training plans be implemented and available when MSHA inspectors visit your site on or after October 2, 2000. Training plans will be required for the following:

1. New inexperienced miner.
2. New experienced miner.
3. New task.
4. Annual refresher.
5. Site-specific hazard.

The new rule does not require MSHA certification of instructors nor does it require MSHA approval of training plans, as long as both of these meet the requirements. MSHA has provided a Starter Kit (30 CFR Part 46 Starter Kit with Sample Training Forms) to make it easier for companies to develop training plans meeting the standard’s requirements. The starter kit is a fill-in-the-blank generic training plan along with instructions, numerous sources of information, and forms containing all the information needed on training records. For those companies which plan to do their own training, MSHA has also developed an Instructors Guide (30 CFR Part 46 Instructors Guide with Lesson Plans).

The standard spells out training times for new inexperienced miners (24 hours) and for annual refresher training (8 hours), but not for newly-employed experienced miner, task or site-specific hazard training. However, the course materials to be used, the approximate times each subject will be taught, the instruction methods to be used, and the evaluation methods to be used must be included in the training plan.

Affected mines have the option of doing their own training or having it done by an outsider (such as our Program at Michigan Technological University -- the State Grants Program). Dave Carlson (906/487-2453) can help you make out a training plan which will allow you to use either your own instructors or instructors from Michigan Technological University. Also contact Dave Carlson if you are interested in additional 1-day seminars in your part of Michigan to help you complete your training plans.

In our opinion, Michigan mines will find it most convenient to use the State Grants Program at Michigan Technological University to perform comprehensive training such as the classroom portions of New Miner, Newly-Employed Experienced Miner, and Annual Refresher training. We recommend that the classroom-portion be 8 to 16 hours for New Miner Training, about 8 hours for Newly-Employed Experienced Miner training, and 8 hours for Annual Refresher Training. Michigan Technological University mine safety instructors can meet the requirements of the new standard and at the same time certify your employees to meet the first aid requirements of 30 CFR Part 56.18010.

For those mines which haven’t used the State Grants Program in the Past, simply call Dave Carlson at 906/487-2453 to receive an estimate of what your cost will be to have an instructor come to your site, as well as to schedule a date for your training. Mines will probably find it most practical and convenient to choose competent experienced mine employees to do task and site-specific hazard training.

Steps To Take to Get Started include:

1. Start immediately by obtaining your 30 CFR Part 46 Starter Kit with Sample Training Forms. You may download this from MSHA’s internet site (http://www.msha.gov), order a copy from Mary Lord at MSHA’s National Mine Academy (304/256-3257), or call or email Dave Carlson (addresses top of page 1) and have him email you a copy or send a copy on a floppy disk (only if you have a fairly new version of Microsoft Word software on your computer).
2. By October 2, 2000, your training plan must be implemented. Use your starter kit or a modified version to complete your training plan.
3. You will need to determine who the single person in your company is who will be responsible for health and safety training. That company person will be the one who signs all of your training records, thereby certifying that the training has been done by a competent person according to your training plan.
4. Competent persons and/or organizations who will do your training will need to be listed in your plan. If you plan to use the State Grants Program at Michigan Technological University (MTU) or other organizations to do your comprehensive training you will not list the names of individual instructors on your training plan. However, records for completed training will need to list the name of the particular instructor who did the training. On your training plan we suggest you write in "State Grants Program at MTU" in the "Competent Person" column for each of the types of comprehensive training – New Miner, Newly-Employed Experienced Miner, and Annual Refresher training. Dave Carlson, your contact at MTU, will assist you if you call him at 906/487-2453.
5. If you plan to use the State Grants Program for any of your training, please send Dave Carlson a copy of your plan so we can prepare to meet your requirements or help you modify the plan to fit our capabilities.
6. Task training will ordinarily be taught by experienced miners at your mine site. Take the time to go through the list of tasks in the Starter Kit and think of other tasks which are specific to your operation to determine which tasks apply to your operation (the list is just ahead of "MSHA Training Materials List" tab in the Starter Kit). Select the competent person(s) who will train newly-assigned employees. Remember that your "Competent Person" must have the ability, training, knowledge, or experience to provide training in his/her area of expertise, must be able to effectively communicate the training subject to miners and to evaluate whether the training given is effective.
7. In designing your training plan, provide flexibility for yourself. Approximate times to be spent on the various courses should cover as wide a range as you anticipate needing. For example, those mines planning to use the State Grants Program Annual Refresher Training and simultaneous Part 56.18010 first aid certification will need to specify a time range of 30 minutes to 4 hours for first aid training. Thus to grant the Part 56.18010 certification in your Annual Refresher Training, our instructor spends 4 of the 8 hours of Annual Refresher Training on first aid once every three years. In the intervening years, the instructor spends about a half hour of the 8-hour Annual Refresher Training on first aid to re-certify your employees to meet the Part 56.18010 requirement.
8. Provide additional flexibility by only listing the Teaching Methods, Course Training Materials, and Evaluation Procedures you are absolutely certain you will use every time you train. This eliminates the concern that an overzealous miner, inspector or attorney will look at your plan and training records and find cause to accuse or penalize you for not using all of the methods listed. There is nothing stopping you from employing methods in training in addition to the ones you check off in your plan. For example, if you check off lecture for the teaching method, you will most likely also find it convenient to use discussion and audiovisuals to aid your lecture, but if you check these off, you may be called on to account for not using them.
9. Once your training plan is complete, make it available for each miner to read. Miners must have two weeks to consider your plan before you implement it.
10. To start training, your Competent Person(s) may need to be trained and will need to develop a lesson plan. Use your handout entitled "30 CFR Part 46 Instructors Guide" to assist in developing a lesson plan. This guide also may be obtained from the same sources as the starter kit (see item 1 above).
11. If you don’t have a recent copy of the National Mine Academy "Catalog of Training Products for the Mining Industry", order one by calling Mary Lord at 304/256-3257. Using the Catalog will make numerous training videos and other materials available to you at a reasonable cost.
12. Miners who began employment as a miner after April 14, 1999, but do not have 12 months of cumulative surface mining or equivalent experience before October 2, 2000 will be required to have had new inexperienced miner training.
13. Begin training your people no later than October 2, 2000.
14. If you hire a new person after October 2, 2000, they will need either New Experienced Miner Training or New Inexperienced Miner training.
15. Begin site-specific hazard training your contractors and visitors and also begin task training your employees by October 2, 2000.
16. Complete your initial annual refresher training no later than March 30, 2001 or no later than the following year at the end of same month you completed your current year’s annual refresher training.

There is currently a concern among mine operators that the new Part 62 Noise Standard will greatly increase their costs of doing business. While compliance will not be "a piece of cake", it is doable by small operators without major expenditures. There are a lot of requirements to the new rule, but the items of greatest concern to operators are the "exposure monitoring requirement" and the "Action Level". The exposure monitoring requirement could be quite costly, but need not be. For example, a noise dosimeter and calibrator could cost upwards of $3,000, but an inexpensive Sound Level Meter (SLM) will do an acceptable job. Industrial hygienists at MSHA’s Duluth office have made it easier to use an SLM by preparing a table of noise doses based on noise level and exposure time (see attached table at end of newsletter).

The Action Level (8-hr exposure at 85 dBA or higher) will affect a lot of miners. It is quite probable that the majority of miners will be exposed above the Action Level. But exposure above the Action Level shouldn't put anyone out of business! Exposure above the Action Level is not a violation. Exposure above the Action Level does require enrollment of the exposed miner in a Hearing Conservation Program (HCP), which requires:

1. noise monitoring,
2. training,
3. the offer of hearing protectors,
4. the offer of audiometric testing, and
5. recordkeeping.

There is, however, no requirement, whatsoever, to use engineering or administrative controls to reduce exposure below the Action Level.

Noise monitoring can be done with an inexpensive SLM. Training requirements are spelled out in the rule, and MSHA has already committed to providing various handbooks and manuals to help with training (including assistance from District staff, EP&D, State Grants Programs, etc.). Ear plugs are 15 to 25 cents per pair (and most operators already provide them). Ear muffs are $15.00 to $45.00 per pair. Audiometric testing is usually less than $20.00 per employee per year. Required records for a small operator for an entire year could be kept on a single sheet of paper (audiometric test records, if any, which would be supplied by the audiologist administering the test, would also be required).

The attached table provided by MSHA can be used with an inexpensive (< $100) SLM to estimate noise doses. The idea is to take a SLM measurement of the noise level associated with a job, estimate the exposure time, and then use the table to find the corresponding noise dose. Noise doses for multiple jobs are then simply added together to produce an estimate of the full-shift noise dose.

The advantage of using the attached table is that operators don't need to buy an expensive dosimeter, or apply complicated mathematical formulas to SLM measurements to estimate a noise dose. The table covers the full range of noise levels from 80 through 115 dBA in 1 dBA increments, and exposure times from 1 hour to 15 hours in 1 hour increments (plus 15 minutes and 30 minutes). It can be used for determining Action Level noise dose and PEL noise dose (i.e. it takes into account the 80 dBA threshold for Action Level and 90 dBA threshold for the PEL). Instructions are included along with an example, a reminder on what to do if exposure is at or above the Action Level or above the PEL, and a disclaimer (the result is just an approximation; MSHA industrial hygienists recommend adding a couple of dB's to SLM measurements just to be on the safe side). Some extrapolation might be necessary, but even if the user just rounds off to the nearest boxed value, this method will get them in the ballpark at a very reasonable price tag.

On September 13, 2000, MSHA's new noise rule will take effect. The new rule's requirements differ significantly from the existing rule. Under the old rule, the minimum sound level MSHA measured was 90 dBA. Any sound below this 90 dBA level was completely ignored. The new rule has an 85 dBA "Action Level," which is determined by integrating all sound levels from 80 to 130 dBA on a time-weighted-average basis for a full work shift. The new rule also requires mine operators to perform noise exposure assessments for all employees to determine if exposure equals or exceeds the Action Level. Any employee exposed at or above the 85 dBA Action Level must be enrolled by the operator in a "Hearing Conservation Program" (HCP).

The new rule retains the existing rule's 90 dBA personal exposure limit (PEL) for noise. Compliance with the PEL will be determined under the new rule the same way it is under the existing rule; by personal noise exposure measurements which integrate all sound levels from 90 to 140 dBA to obtain a time-weighted-average level for the workshift. Whenever MSHA measures personal noise exposures that exceed the PEL, the mine will receive a citation. The policy on hearing protectors won't change: if the PEL is exceeded, a citation will be issued whether or not the miner was wearing hearing protection, but if hearing protectors were being worn, the citation will not be S&S.

Under the new rule, MSHA will continue the current practice of requiring that the mine utilize all feasible engineering and administrative controls to reduce the miner's noise exposure below the PEL. In addition, the new rule requires miners exposed at or above the 85 dBA Action Level to be enrolled in an HCP.

An HCP must include the following elements as spelled out in detail in the new standard:

(a) A system of monitoring.

(b) Providing and requiring the use of hearing protectors.

(c) Audiometric testing (baseline and annual).

(d) Training.

(e) Recordkeeping.

Under both the new rule and the existing rule, the mine operator needs to ensure that no miner is ever exposed to continuous sound level above 115 dBA, regardless of whether or not the miner is using hearing protectors. Under the new rule, dual hearing protection (ear muff over ear plug) is required when a miner's workshift time-weighted-average exposure level exceeds 105 dBA (determined by integrating all sound levels from 90 to 140 dBA).

The State Grants Program can also provide assistance to you in meeting the requirements for the new noise standard. Please call Dave Carlson (906/487-2453) to discuss your needs.

ACTION ITEMS:

1. Mine operators should begin monitoring sound levels at all noisy locations where personnel spend time. A Sound Level Meter (SLM) which monitors noise levels from 80 to 140 dBA can be used to assess employee noise exposures, and can provide information on where noise controls are needed the most, as well as helping to evaluate the effectiveness of controls. Sound level meters that are suitable for this purpose can be purchased at electronic stores for less than $200.
2. Mine operators should work with equipment manufacturers and others to reduce sound levels. Such engineering controls should aim to reduce the levels as low as possible, but it will be difficult on some equipment to reduce noise levels below 85 dBA, or even 90 dBA in some cases. Where feasible, a mine operator can include administrative controls, which involve keeping noisy areas off limits, or limiting the portion of the workshift a person is allowed to spend in a noisy area. Administrative controls must be posted.
3. Whether or not a worker is overexposed by entering a noisy area depends upon the amount of time spent in such areas. Although an inexpensive SLM can be used for employee noise exposure assessment, it can sometimes be difficult to accurately measure a person's full-shift noise exposure using an SLM. Such difficulties occur if a miner’s job exposes him/her to highly variable noise levels, or if the miner moves about during the course of the shift between locations having noise levels that vary significantly. Therefore, in some cases, the only way a sufficiently accurate measure of worker exposure can be determined is by attaching a personal noise exposure dosimeter to the worker for the entire workshift and measuring his/her time-weighted-average exposure. A personal noise exposure dosimeter will cost about $2000. It is also likely that the 85 dBA action level will be exceeded for some employees at almost every mine, and that a hearing conservation program will be required for these occupations.

To become more familiar with noise measure-ments using SLM's and personal dosimeters and dust measurements using personal samplers, operators should enroll in one of the one-day noise and dust workshops being set up at various locations in Michigan. In the workshops MSHA Industrial Hygienists will provide hands-on experience to attendees in taking noise and dust measurements. Information will be provided on the instruments needed, where to purchase or borrow them etc. The workshops will be announced shortly to those who have indicated their interest on sign-up sheets passed around at the Winter Workshops in Gaylord, Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor. Others who would like to attend a 1-day workshop on dust and noise sampling should call David Carlson at 906/487-2453. If you do not reach Mr. Carlson, please leave a message consisting of your name, your company name, your phone number and the number of people who would attend, and you will be contacted when workshop planning is complete.

Fees for training have remained steady since 1994 and are as follows:

1. $20/person with minimum of $200 for small companies (less than 50 employees) and minimum of $400 for large companies (50 employees or more). These costs apply for New Miner, Annual Refresher and Independent Contractor Training.
2. Add $5 per person when our 4-hour first aid course is part of your 8-hour training session. Your employees receive two certificates -- a first aid certificate and an annual refresher training certificate). Our Program developed the approximately 4-hour first aid program to meet the minimum MSHA requirements. We recommend providing this 4-hour course as part of your 8-hour training session once every three years. Trainees are tested and are re-certified during each of the two intervening year’s annual refresher training. (The $5 per person is added only during the year when the full 4-hour first aid training is given).

Travel costs are charged in addition to the above fees as follows:

Instructor’s wages while driving from home to the training location are not ordinarily charged. However, when special dates are requested requiring the instructor to travel a round-trip distance in excess of 300 miles, instructor wages during the miles exceeding 300 will be charged at a $20.00 per hour rate.

Travel costs can be reduced significantly by scheduling your session during a week when the instructor is in your area, or by choosing one of our free-travel dates in your area (a list is sent out in November and small companies can sign up for the dates listed for their areas on a first-come, first-served basis). Costs may also be reduced if training can be done along with other similar companies in your area. Dave Carlson (906/487-2453) will work with you in an attempt to schedule a date that will provide you with the lowest cost possible and will provide you a rough cost estimate at the time you schedule training.