The meeting was opened by Chairman Robert L. Frantz at 10:15 a.m.

Attendance:

Others Present:

Mr. Frantz opened the business portion of the meeting.

Minutes of the July 8 meeting were distributed and reviewed. A motion was made by Gerald Finfinger and seconded by Carl Trickett to approve the minutes as typed. The motion carried.

Only 3 members attended the meeting, which is not enough for a voting quorum. The members present agreed to meet without taking official action on any items beyond administrative processes.

Richard Stickler gave an update on recent Deep Mine Safety happenings. It has been 15 months since a fatality occurred in the Pennsylvania bituminous division. A revised notification process where all serious accidents will be investigated by Deep Mine Safety and a written report submitted within 2 weeks of completion of the investigation is now in place. These reports are distributed to inspection staff to give to supervisors at mine. Copies of each accident reports involving injury will be sent directly to mine management to review with those individuals who do similar types of work. There has been a 15% reduction this year through August compared to last year on non-fatal lost time accidents. Production is up 10.9% and manhours are up 4.6%.

At the request of labor and management, Deep Mine Safety has withdrawn the draft technical guidance on common entries and shelter holes. Mines are submitting 702 requests on a mine-by-mine basis. No individual requests have been received yet for shelter holes. A 334 commission had been appointed to address an evacuation plan for a mine drainage ventilation interruption. The technical data submitted by the applicant did not contain data representing a complete ventilation disruption. The commission requested additional tests.

Gerald Finfinger informed the committee that, effective August 24, he was assigned to West Virginia University’s Intergovernmental Personnel Agreement (IPA). He hopes to return to the Pittsburgh Research Center on August 23, 2000. The new director of NIOSH Pittsburgh Research Center is Jeff Kohler. Mr. Kohler plans to appoint a new NIOSH representative to the advisory committee sometime in November. Advisory committee guidelines will be followed.

Old Business:

Mine Rescue Subcommittee. Gerald Finfinger sent out letters to the mines soliciting input on this subcommittee and had no response. Mr. Finfinger suggested that the next time a subcommittee is developed, the advisory committee should determine who is on the subcommittee immediately. He will pass his file on the mine rescue subcommittee on to the new NIOSH representative.

Accident Review and Recommendations: A general discussion on the benefits of safe job procedures and accident reduction programs was held. The Bureau pointed out that larger companies have safety departments to develop safe job procedures, whereas smaller companies do not. The most effective job safety procedures are those developed by the individuals who do the type of work. The concept is to look at serious accidents and find individuals with direct experience with these types of activities. Safe job procedures will be reviewed or developed and made available to all operations to use as a tool, not as a mandate. The advisory committee can move forward on this by finding safe job procedures that equipment manufacturers have put out and distribute to the industry.

Accident Reduction Through Safety Job Procedures: Richard Stickler gave his views on this issue. He explained why it is worthwhile to involve people from the job site in development of safe job procedures. Big operators have safety organizations to provide support to their operations. An outline to develop a safe job procedure would be to take serious accidence and pick large company to review a safe job procedure, then make it available to all operators, including small operators who don’t have the same resources as a large operation. The advisory committee can move forward on this by taking a look at safe job procedures that manufacturers have put out and make them available to industry.

Matt mentioned that MSHA is having a meeting on November 4 at the Four Points by Sheraton in Greensburg to discuss their new initiative on independent contractors.

Electrical Ground Monitoring Devices: Richard Stickler met with MSHA’s Approval and Certification Center in May. MSHA will take a look at the new and repaired GK-8 ground wire monitors and perform follow ups to check the units in the field. Mr. Stickler stated that he would like to wait 6 months to see what MSHA learns with their investigation of new and repairs units. The Bureau will also monitor what the inspectors’ findings.

Future of the Pennsylvania Bituminous Mine Safety Advisory Committee: How can more people get involved in the committee? Carl Trickett will bring this issue up at the next Pennsylvania Coal Association meeting to determine their intent. The other organizations will be contacted to establish their intent to participate in this committee.

The next meeting will be held at 10 a.m. in the Fayette County Health Center in Uniontown on January 13, 1999. The schedule for 1999 meetings is as follows:

January 13
April 14
July 14
October 13

With no further business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 12 noon.