Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 35 / Wednesday, February 22, 1995 / Notices 9987

mandatory in August 1973. MSHA will

consider all timely submitted comments

before taking final action on the PPL.

Draft Policy

Background

Standard 56/57.18010, First Aid

Training, states, ‘‘Selected supervisors

shall be trained in first aid. First aid

training shall be made available to all

interested employees.’’

The intent of the standard is to

provide first aid capability at each mine

so that timely and appropriate treatment

may be given in the event a miner is

injured. Questions raised by industry

and labor indicate that compliance and

enforcement guidance is needed to

clarify the requirements of the

regulation. In a recent five year period,

more than 2,200 violations of the

standard have been cited. Many of these

citations were issued under

circumstances where no one at the mine

site had been given first aid training.

Therefore, MSHA is considering issuing

a PPL on this subject. It is MSHA’s

policy that a sufficient number of

supervisors must be selected and

trained to ensure that a responsible

person is available to administer first

aid at the mine site on all working

shifts.

Selected Supervisors To Be Trained

Selected supervisors can include shift

bosses, foremen, superintendents, or

other designated individuals in a

supervisory position. In order to provide

first aid assistance to sick or injured

employees, trained supervisors should

be selected to provide coverage on each

working shift.

Course Content

The word ‘‘trained’’ refers to a

performance capability. A person

trained in first aid must be able to

provide the necessary level of treatment

consistent with accepted first aid

practices. The first aid course for

supervisors, therefore, should include,

at a minimum, the following

fundamental topics which are consistent

with those of nationally recognized

courses: patient assessment, artificial

ventilation, control of bleeding, control

of shock, wounds and dressings, burns

and scalds, musculoskeletal injuries,

and handling and transportation.

Accepted Courses

Training courses which include the

fundamentals identified above, and are

sponsored or sanctioned by a recognized

organization (American Red Cross,

National Safety Council, etc.) meet the

requirements of 30 CFR 56/57.18010.

First aid training conducted by MSHAcertified instructors also meets the

requirements of the standard, provided

that the topics, as detailed above, are

included in the course. 30 CFR Part 48

training requirements address only a

limited form of first aid training for all

miners and, therefore, is unacceptable

for compliance with 30 CFR 56/

57.18010.

A certificate of course completion

provided by the trainer or the

recognized training organization, or a

written statement by the mine operator

certifying course completion, will serve

as evidence to MSHA of current

training.

Refresher Training

In order for first aid capability to

remain effective, it is necessary for

persons who have received the training

to maintain an adequate competency

level and, thus, remain ‘‘trained.’’

Refresher training prevents the loss or

diminution of competency over a period

of time. When a recognized course is

used to comply with the standard,

retraining should be conducted within

the recommended frequency and course

content established by the providing

organization.

Availability Of Training For Employees

Availability of training for interested

employees may be announced by

posting the course schedule on the mine

bulletin board, or by notifying

employees through other means. The

course should be given at a location and

time convenient to employees.

Dated: February 16, 1995.

J. Davitt McAteer,

Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and

Health.

[FR Doc. 95–4342 Filed 2–16–95; 4:31 pm]

BILLING CODE 4510–43–M

Examination of Working Places

AGENCY: Mine Safety and Health

Administration, Labor.

ACTION: Notice.

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
9988 Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 35 / Wednesday, February 22, 1995 / Notices

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