A fatality earlier this month involving a hydraulic breaker represents a sharp uptick in U.S. mining industry deaths caused by machine accidents, according to the Mine Safety and Health Admininstration (MSHA). The 32-year-old general manager/owner and the excavator operator were in the process of positioning the excavator for a motor exchange when the hydraulic breaker attachment fell off the excavator and hit the victim.

“Until MSHA sets and strictly enforces an evidence-based, silica-specific dust standard, along with improved procedures for measuring and monitoring silica, the agency will not be fulfilling its mission to ‘prevent death, illness and injury from mining and promote safe and healthful workplaces for U.S. miners."

An alarming increase in the incidence of the black lung disease among the nation’s coal miners has led to a call by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and the United Steelworkers International Union (USW) for a new standard to protect miners from the silica dust that causes the disease. In a letter to David Zatezalo, the head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), UMWA President Cecil Roberts and USW President Leo W. Gerard noted that changes in mining practices have led to increased exposure to silica for miners.

A recent study of 1,334 workers from 20 mine sites found that miners who avoid risk were less likely to experience near-miss incidents, according to a paper published in the Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries.

The number of coal company officials charged in a case involving defrauding regulators about black lung disease has risen to nine, according to a recent announcement from the U.S. Department of Labor. U.S. Attorney Russell M. Coleman said Glendal “Buddy” Hardison, the former manager of all Armstrong Coal mines in western Kentucky, is the latest official from thecompany to be charged by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to defraud an agency of the U.S. government by deceit, trickery, and dishonest means.

An urgent search and rescue operation going on in an underground West Virginia mine right now is atypical: the Rock House Powellton mine is inactive and the missing people are not mine employees. A West Virginia mine rescue team is attempting to find and rescue three young people who reportedly entered the sealed mine illegally, leaving an all-terrain vehicle near its entrance.

An EPA climate change-related rule rollback, “burnout training for doctors, and a legal challenge filed by miners an Mine Safety and Health Administration action. These were among the top occupational safety, health and environment stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) last week filed a complaint in the United States District Court for Southern District of West Virginia, charging that the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) unlawfully released Pocahontas Coal Company, LLC’s Affinity Mine from MSHA’s Pattern of Violations (POV) status in August.

EAST ST. LOUIS, IL – Two suspects are under arrest after a high-speed chase from Washington Park Illinois into East St. Louis on westbound I-64. KTVI-TV reports around 5 p.m. Saturday, officers from the Washington Park Police Department were chasing two suspects in a vehicle when it struck two cars on the Poplar Street Bridge.

Veterinarians face a hazmat risk when treating animal patients, truck stops don’t offer healthy options to truckers and OSHA says it’s going after worksites with high injury and illness rates. These were among the occupational safety and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.