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

Free-Travel Training Schedule for 2001

Each year the Program publishes a training schedule, which if adhered to, reduces the costs to the Program and also to Michigan’s mines for instructor time and travel. Travel costs can be reduced significantly by choosing one of the free-travel dates in your area (Attachment 1 is a list of free-travel training locations and dates – applies to small companies only on a first-come, first-served basis). If these dates are unsatisfactory, costs can also be reduced by training with other companies or by training on the day before or after an instructor is training other companies in your area of the state. Dave Carlson (906/487-2453 or dcarlson@mtu.edu) will work with you to schedule a date that will provide you with the lowest possible cost. Program training and travel fees during the current year, which are the same as in past years, are listed below. A rough cost estimate for your training is available upon request.

1. The daily instructor charge will still be based on a rate of $20/person/day with a minimum daily charge of $200 for small companies (companies with less than 50 employees) and a minimum daily charge of $400 for large companies (companies with more than 50 employees). The cost for the instructor to travel to and from the site are additional.
2. The daily charge will, as before, be increased by $5 per person if, in addition to the regular training (annual refresher, for example), we issue a certificate indicating that the trainee has received four hours of first aid training. This is to cover the extra cost of equipment and materials. The Program’s 4-hour first aid course which would be covered in the 8-hour Annual Refresher training once every three years, qualifies each trainee to meet MSHA’s requirement for a person on site trained in first aid (30 CFR, Part 56.18010).
3. Respirator fit testing – Charge per day - $500 + travel.
4. American Red Cross First Aid/CPR Training - $400 per day charge + travel. Also each company will need to pay their local American Red Cross chapter for texts and recordkeeping.

Travel costs, based on current government rates, are as follows:

1. Automobile travel - $0.325 per mile traveled to and from training site.
2. Meals – About $34 per day, but some locations are more or less.
3. Motels - As billed by motels.

Instructor’s wages for preparation and travel time are not ordinarily charged. However, when special dates are requested requiring the instructor to travel a round-trip distance in excess of 200 miles to train at a single location, instructor wages during travel will be charged at a $20.00 per hour rate for the time over the usual time to travel the 200 miles. The Program attempts to train at more than one location each time an instructor is sent out for longer distances to keep overall costs down and make it possible to train as many companies within the Program budget as possible.

Part 46 Training – Our Recommendations

With the new Part 46 MSHA training standard, all mining operations including sand and gravel are subject to MSHA citations for training violations. Part 46 affects a number of operations previously-exempt from MSHA enforcement of training requirements including: shell dredging, sand, gravel, surface stone, surface clay, colloidal phosphate, and surface limestone mines.

New Inexperienced Miner Training - Part 46 re-quires that new-inexperienced miners receive 24 hours of training. We are recommending that the State’s mines undertake this training themselves, if possible. Topics required by the New Inexperienced Miner training standard are, for the most part, information that is site specific, making mine personnel uniquely qualified to present the material to trainees. We at the State Grants Program will send a trainer to assist the State’s mines in accomplishing this training, when requested to do so.

A properly-prepared training plan will take advantage of the following facts: 1) of the 24 hours of required training, four hours must be accomplished before the miner goes to work and first aid must be completed within 60 days, and 2) practice of the newly-assigned task which is supervised by a competent person can be used to complete the remaining hours.

We recommend that mines using our trainers to assist in New Miner Training include our 4-hour first aid course for an overall pre-work training time of 8 hours. This will certify the new miner as a person on the site capable of performing first aid as required by Part 56.18010 in the standard. Dave Carlson (906/487-2453 or email dcarlson@mtu.edu) can assist you in modifying your training plan to provide you with greater flexibility as well as the capability to take advantage of the flexibility written into the Part 46 standard.

New Experienced Miner Training – Much of what was said above applies to New Experienced Miner training. The New Experienced Miner training standard doesn’t specify the training time, and closely-supervised practice may not be required, particularly for persons experienced in the newly-assigned task. Where assistance is requested from the State Grants Program, we will again recommend including our 4-hour first aid course for an overall pre-work training time of 8 hours.

Annual Refresher Training – We recommend that the State’s mines continue to use our Program to perform all of their annual refresher training. Eight hours of training is required and when this is accomplished in a single session, the training must be well-thought-out and well-prepared. Program personnel invest weeks of time and purchase new training materials for each year’s presentations, which include discussion on numerous topics of concern. It is highly unlikely that any of the State’s mines can afford to spend equal time or resources to train their own employees and if interest wanes during the training, little is accomplished toward refreshing the trainee on the topics presented.

Mines planning to use our Program (State Grants Program) to do their Annual Refresher Training may need to have Dave Carlson modify the Annual Refresher Training portion of their training plans (phone 906/487-2453 or email dcarlson@mtu.edu). This will allow Program instructors the flexibility needed to use much of the same lesson plan at each of the mines trained. Also, when a number of mines train together, each will need to have roughly the same basic Annual Refresher Training plan.

New Task Training - We recommend that com-panies perform their own New Task Training. Nearly all material presented will either be found in equipment operator manuals or is possessed by persons in the company experienced in the various tasks. Job Safety Analysis (JSA) may be the best approach to training the new operator to work more safely. JSA involves identifying as many as possible of the hazards associated with a task, discussing each with the trainee, and teaching correct procedures to eliminate each hazard.

Area Annual Refresher Training Workshops – The Great Lakes District Council of the Holmes Safety Association is offering to work with the State Grants Program in setting up a few multi-company Annual Refresher Training workshops at various locations throughout Michigan. The purpose is to assist small mine operators in fulfilling their annual refresher training requirements. The Holmes Association would rent a motel room, provide refreshments and lunch and would pay the State Grants Program to provide an instructor for the day’s training. The cost would be divided between the participating companies on a cost-per-trainee basis. If you wish to participate in one of these workshops in your area, contact Dave Carlson, and if sufficient interest is expressed, Ken Cunningham of the Great Lakes District Council will be contacted and a workshop will be set up.

Train-The-Trainer Workshops - The State Grants Program recently conducted a number of free train-the-trainer workshops throughout Michigan to help prepare mine "competent person" instructors to conduct the various types of required training. The final scheduled workshop will be held at the Grand Rapids Ann Street Holiday Inn on December 6, 2000. If you wish to attend, contact Dave Carlson (906/487-2453 or email dcarlson@mtu.edu). Additional trainer workshops will also be scheduled if sufficient interest exists. Let Dave Carlson know if you wish to have a workshop in your area.

Monitoring Worker Exposure to Noise

As of September 13 of this year, companies were required to monitor worker exposure to noise in the workplace. Depending upon the equipment and procedures used, this could be either a very costly undertaking using a dosimeter and calibrator (total cost may reach $2000 to $3000), or much useful information can be gained for minimal cost using a sound level meter. We recommend that the State’s mines purchase a low-cost sound level meter (less than $50) that measures from 80 to 140 dBA and make the measurements themselves following the proce-dures and using the forms in 'Instructions for Noise Sampling with a Sound Level Meter' (Below).

For those who desire more detailed instruction on noise measurements or noise and dust measurements, the Program will again offer free classes during the months of February through April of 2001. If you wish to attend, contact Dave Carlson (906/487-2453 or dcarlson@mtu.edu) or Mary Ewert (906/487-2272 or maewert@mtu.edu). If there is sufficient interest, we will schedule a class in your part of the State. In general, only mines that have been cited for worker overexposure to dust are required to perform dust monitoring while, on the other hand, all companies are required to perform noise monitoring initially and when changes are made which change worker exposure levels.

A sound level meter costing less than $50 can be used to perform the measurements. For each location sampled do the following:

1. Take 1-second readings with the sound level meter and record them.
2. Use the chart (Figure 1 below) to determine the 1-hour dose (dose per hour) for each reading. Note that in determining action level doses, you will use all sound levels 80 dBA and above considering those below 80 dBA to be 0.00. In determining PEL doses you will use all sound levels 90 dBA and above and consider those below 90 dBA to be 0.00!
3. Determine the average dose/hour value (note that you can never average sound level meter readings – just dose/hour values).
4. For each person exposed at the location measured, do the following arithmetic:

(Number of Hours Person Works at Location) x Avg. Dose/hr = (Dose at that location)

5. For each person, add the doses for all locations or conditions (such as loader operating and loader idle conditions) the person spends time at during the workshift to get his/her total exposure for the workshift. Don’t forget to include the time in the lunch room, travel time, etc.
6. If the Action Level Dose for the workshift exceeds 50 % you must take the action required by the Standard. If the PEL Dose for the workshift exceeds 100 % you must take the action required by the Standard.
7. While MSHA will not rely on your measurements to determine if a person is overexposed, they nevertheless require that you make the measurements.

Note! You may use a table like the example in Figure 2 (below) to collect your data. An empty copy of this table is given in Figure 3 below. An example of a Table you may use to estimate the total dose per shift for each for each of your miners is given in Figure 4 below and Figure 5 is a blank table which you may copy from this web page for your own use.

Manuals Under Development

Surface Mine Instructor and Trainee Review Manual – This manual was first published in September of 1999. An updated edition is undergoing final corrections and free copies will be distributed to all Michigan Mines upon request.

You may receive a hard copy, a floppy disk copy or an email copy. Contact Mary Ewert (906/487-2272 or email maewert@mtu.edu) to receive your free copy of the updated manual. The manual is designed to provide instructors with information that will help them prepare for and can be used in comprehensive training (new miner, new experienced miner and annual refresher). The manual includes lists of questions and detailed answers on a large number of safety and health topics.

The manual contains the following materials:

1. Discussion of training requirements.
2. Training Materials (By Topic)
3. Main Topics follow MSHA form 5000 listing of topics.
4. Materials on over 35 topic areas
5. Most Topics have questions and detailed answers.
6. Appendices
7. Listing of internet Materials
8. Short Fatalgram Descriptions
9. Other exercises

The manual is under copyright protection, but we do not intend to enforce this protection for copies made for in-house use.

Surface Mine Supervisor Manual – This manual was sent out to reviewers during August, 2000 and was to be completed by September 30, 2000. However, with the need to set up competent person workshops during October, final editing has been delayed, and the intention now is to publish the manual by the end of 2000. The manual contains much useful information for mine supervisors and will be made available to Michigan Mines for the cost of publishing, shipping and handling. The final cost hasn’t been determined yet, but is estimated to be somewhere in the range of $40. Contact Mary Ewert (904/487-2272 or email maewert@mtu.edu) to receive your copy when it becomes available.

MSHA’s New HazCom Rule

MSHA published its interim final HazCom rule in the Federal Register on October 3, 2000. The term "HazCom" is short for "hazard communication" and is sometimes referred to as the worker’s "Right-to-Know" standard. The standard ensures that miners are informed of the hazards of chemicals they must work with. Major provisions of the standard include:

The rules announcement states that it’s requirements "mirror those developed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in most areas". The final rule is expected to take effect one year from the original announcement or on October 3, 2001.

Winter Workshops to Be Announced Soon