[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]
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