Miners need to hear about a dangerous condition, not merely have it entered into a file. The Mine Safety and Health Administration's final rule published January 23, 2017 requires operators of metal and nonmetal mines to promptly notify miners in affected areas about conditions found that may harm safety or health. The rule announced May 23 effectiveness; these new duties were not yet in force on January 25. [2017-00832][2016-13218]
The sequence matters. A designated competent person must examine each working place at least once each shift before miners start work there. Operators must promptly begin appropriate corrective action when adverse conditions are found. Making the examination record before shift end is a separate obligation, not permission to postpone warning the people exposed. [2017-00832][2016-13218]
The June 2016 proposal would have required the examiner to sign and date that record. The final dropped the proposed signature requirement but retained the examiner's name, examination date, places examined and description of adverse conditions. When a condition is corrected, the record must include or later receive the corrective-action date. Removing a signature does not erase the identity of the person who examined the workplace. [2017-00832][2016-13218]
Those details create a traceable connection between finding a hazard and documenting its correction. They do not establish that injuries have fallen. MSHA anticipated more effective and consistent examinations but expressly claimed no monetized benefit. Proposal and final are one rulemaking chain, documenting a planned protective process rather than independently demonstrating what it achieved for miners. [2017-00832][2016-13218]
Source documents
- Examinations of Working Places in Metal and Nonmetal Mineshttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2017-01-23/html/2017-00832.htm
- Examinations of Working Places in Metal and Nonmetal Mineshttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-06-08/html/2016-13218.htm