[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 35 (Wednesday, February 22, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9987-9988]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-4341]
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Examination of Working Places
AGENCY: Mine Safety and Health Administration, Labor.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is
voluntarily requesting comments on a draft Program Policy Letter
concerning examination of working places which is required by 30 CFR
56/57.18002.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before April 1, 1995.
ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Administrator, Metal and Nonmetal
Mine Safety and Health, 4015 Wilson Boulevard, Room 728, Arlington,
Virginia 22203, Fax: 703-235-9173. Commenters are encouraged to send
comments on a computer disk along with their original comments in hard
copy.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Roderick Breland, Chief, Division of
Safety, Metal and Nonmetal Mine Safety and Health, 703-235-8480.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: MSHA updates its policies for enforcement of
safety and health regulations through Program Policy Letters (PPLs).
These PPLs are Agency interpretations of what existing MSHA regulations
require; they are not new regulations. Therefore, PPLs do not impose
new requirements, but explain or clarify how regulations work or apply
in a particular situation. These PPLs are used by MSHA inspectors,
miners, mine operators, and mining equipment manufacturers as guidance
in determining how best to comply with MSHA regulations. Once adopted,
the policy statements are published in the MSHA program policy manual
and given wide distribution.
To increase public participation on selected draft PPLs, MSHA is
voluntarily requesting comments and suggestions from the public,
especially from people who would be directly affected by the PPLs. By
this notice, MSHA is requesting comments on a draft PPL concerning
examination of working places, as required by 30 CFR 56/57.18002. These
safety standards were first promulgated as advisory standards in July
1969 and became mandatory in August 1979. MSHA will consider all timely
submitted comments before taking final action on the PPL.
Draft Policy
Background
Standard 56/57.18002, Examination of Working Places, contains the
following requirements:
(a) A competent person designated by the operator shall examine
each working place at least once each shift for conditions which may
adversely affect safety or health. The operator shall promptly
initiate appropriate action to correct such conditions.
(b) A record that such examinations were conducted shall be kept
by the operator for a period of one year, and shall be made
available for review by the Secretary or his authorized
representative.
(c) In addition, conditions that may present an imminent danger
which are noted by the person conducting the examination shall be
brought to the immediate attention of the operator who shall
withdraw all persons from the area affected (except persons referred
to in section 104(c) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of
1977) until the danger is abated.
The intent of the standard is to require regular close examination
of the total mining environment to find and eliminate potential hazards
caused by [[Page 9988]] unsafe conditions and practices that may be
present. However, in a 5-year period, MSHA has investigated 17 serious
and fatal accidents where working place examinations were not conducted
or were inadequately conducted. In a significant number of these
accidents, failure to conduct working place examinations was a
contributing cause. Therefore, rigorous working place examinations are
a fundamental accident prevention tool for the mining industry. The
Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 (Mine Act) holds mine
operators responsible for preventing the existence of unsafe conditions
and practices and the correction of hazards before miners are exposed
to them. MSHA is revising its policy concerning 30 CFR 56/57.18002 to
better assure that operators conduct rigorous working place
examinations.
Recordkeeping
The standard requires a record that working place examinations were
conducted. Those records are required to be retained by the mine
operator for one year, and made available to the Secretary of Labor or
his authorized representative. MSHA has accepted annual certification
of work place examinations as an alternative to the standard's
recordkeeping requirement, when such certification is made available at
the time of an inspection. However, given the serious and fatal
accidents that have occurred, annual certification of work place
examinations will no longer be accepted for compliance.
To be effective, work place examinations must be timely, made by a
competent person, made in the areas where miners work, and hazardous
conditions must be promptly corrected. Therefore, for an operator to be
in compliance, each working place examination record must include
information essential and necessary to accomplish the intent of the
standard: (1) the date and time the examination was made; (2) by whom
the examination was made; (3) the area(s) examined; and (4) any
hazardous conditions found. These records would need to be made
available upon request to the Secretary's authorized representative.
Competent Person
A ``competent person,'' according to 30 CFR 56/57.2, is ``*** a
person having abilities and experience that fully qualify him to
perform the duty to which he is assigned.'' This definition includes
any person who is fully qualified to perform the assigned task.
Examinations may be made by a mine foreman, a mine superintendent,
another person associated with mine management, or a miner, provided
the person is fully qualified to perform the task. Fully qualified
means having had adequate experience in the task or having been trained
in the recognition of hazards in the working place.
Working Place
The phrase ``working place'' is defined in 30 CFR 56/57.2 as ``***
any place in or about a mine where work is being performed.'' As used
in the standard, the phrase applies to those locations in a mine or
mill where persons work during a shift in the mining or milling
processes. The working place for an individual assigned to perform
maintenance or repair duties, for example, is the area where the
individual performs the maintenance or repair work. For an operator to
be in compliance, that area would need to be examined by a competent
individual for hazardous conditions and any hazardous conditions would
need to be promptly corrected. A hazardous condition is any condition
or practice which poses a risk of harm to a miner or could result in a
violation of a mandatory health or safety standard.
Standard 56/57.18002 does not apply to access or other roads not
directly involved in the mining process, administrative office
building, parking lots, lunchrooms, toilet facilities, or inactive
storage areas. Isolated, abandoned, or idle areas of mines or mills
need not be examined, unless persons perform work in these areas during
the shift.
Frequency of Examination
The standard requires working place examinations to be performed
``at least once each shift.'' Although the standard permits the
examination to be made at any time during the shift, MSHA strongly
recommends in keeping with the remedial intent of the Mine Act and the
standard that this examination be conducted before work begins on a
shift or before work is performed in an area. To be in compliance with
the standard, the mine operator must promptly initiate the correction
of any hazardous conditions that are found. If an imminent danger is
found during an examination, the operator must also withdraw all
persons from the affected area except those necessary for the
correction of the condition.
Dated: February 16, 1995.
J. Davitt McAteer,
Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health.
[FR Doc. 95-4341 Filed 2-16-95; 4:31 pm]
BILLING CODE 4510-43-M
