WorldWide Drilling Resource

13 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® APRIL 2015 Send Your Breaking News to: promotions@ worldwidedrillingresource.com Breaking News MSHA Adds Two New Tools To Track Violations The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has launched two new online tools to assist operators, miners, MSHA, and others in tracking violations of standards commonly associated with mining deaths and frequently found by federal mine inspectors in examinations of underground coal mines. These tools enhance other web-based tools MSHA offers, such as ways to monitor a mine's compliance history, deter- mining its eligibility for a Pattern of Violations, or the number of significant and substantial violations issued in a given time period after a corrective action plan is put into place. The first of the newest enhancements includes a plan to identify the health and safety standards spotlighted in MSHA's Rules to Live By outreach and enforcement program. Twenty-eight of those standards apply to coal mines, and 19 apply to metal and nonmetal mines. The second tool tracks compliance of nine standards associated with haz- ardous conditions posing the greatest risk to underground coal miners. "These new web tools will enable mine operators to monitor their own compliance with specific safety and health standards that are com- monly linked to mining deaths and frequently cited by MSHA," said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. "Operators will be able to track their mine's performance and take any corrective action that may be needed to improve compliance." Visit the MSHA Web site for more details.