Mine Safety and Health Administration June 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), is making $500,000 available in grant funds in FY 2009 for educational and training programs to help identify, avoid, and prevent unsafe working conditions in and around mines. The focus of these grants for FY 2009 will be on training and training materials for mine emergency preparedness and haulage safety for mines. MSHA is expanding this grant opportunity to cover all mines, both surface and underground metal and nonmetal and coal mines. Applicants for the grants may be States and nonprofit (private or public) entities. MSHA could award as many as 10 separate grants with a 12-month period of performance. The amount of each individual grant will be at least $50,000.00. MSHA provides background information on these grants at https://www.msha.gov. MSHA will post the actual solicitation for grant applications (SGA) at https://www.grants.gov. Applications should not be submitted at this time.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) will hold a public hearing on the proposed rule to revise existing requirements to approve sampling devices that monitor miner exposure to respirable coal mine dust. The proposal would establish criteria for the approval of a new type of technology, the ``continuous personal dust monitor'' (CPDM), which would be worn by the miner and would report exposure to dust levels continuously during the shift. In addition, the proposal would update application requirements for the existing ``coal mine dust personal sampler unit'' (CMDPSU) to reflect improvements in this sampler over the past 15 years. This rulemaking is limited to approval