Joe Main, the Obama administration’s assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, held a conference call today to outline for the media his priorities for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Mine safety advocates have high hopes — and high expectations — for Main, the former longtime mine safety and health director for the United Mine Workers of American union.

I’ve posted a recording of the entire conference call, and you can listen by clicking on this button:

And here are a few highlights:

– MSHA plans action “fairly quickly — as in the “next couple of weeks” –  on a plan that Main said will end deadly black lung disease. Main said the standard limit respirable dust in underground mines needs to be tightened and that previous recommendations that MSHA do so will be part of this overall strategy.

– Along with that, Main plans to generally “beef up” the “health” part of MSHA, including staffing changes aimed toward those issues.

– MSHA will be focusing some efforts on the types of violations it finds to be leading causes of deaths in mines.

– Main plans to re-examine the changes in mine emergency response and rescue that have been made since the disasters at Sago, Aracoma, Darby and Crandall Canyon, and working to fill in “gaps” that still exist in those programs.

– MSHA will be taking a hard look at its training requirements and industry training programs, given the huge transition in the mining workforce, with lots of retirements and many new workers moving into the industry.

– Main plans to put a new emphasis at MSHA on seeing that miners can play a strong role in enforcement, perhaps meaning the agency will do more to stand up for miners who speak out against unsafe conditions in their mines.

– Main said he is taking no position on the S-MINER Act, a set of supplements to the 2006 MINER Act that has been pushed by Democratic leaders in Congress and the United Mine Workers.

And here’s a quote that sums up Main’s general goals for MSHA:

… I think that we in this country can achieve zero fatalities. When you look at what we’ve accomplished, I think that is entirely possible

State investigators have cited a mine reclamation contractor for alcohol-related violations in the July death of a worker who drowned in a sediment pond at the Samples Mine in eastern Kanawha County.

On July 28, Mark Allen Gray, 28, died when he ran his rock truck off a haul road and into a sediment containment pond. (See photo above from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration). Gray was employed by Hawkeye Contracting Company LLC, which was performing reclamation at the site for Catenary Coal Co.

According to the new state findings, a toxicology report revealed that Gray had “alcohol present in the blood at a concentration of 0.08 percent.” Also, the report found “inactive metabolite from the consumption of marijuana was also found in the blood.” The report also said Gray had “carried on his person an alcoholic beverage in the form of a beer and an intoxicant identified as marijuana.”

State mine safety investigators report:

One opened, empty 12-ounce beer can was found inside the … truck operator’s cab … after the haul truck was retrieved from the pond.

Foreman Phillip Rife stated on two previous workdays he had detected what he believed to be the odor of alcohol on Mark Allen Gray’s breath. Security guard, Joetta Bowling, who was employed by Appalachian Security, stated that she witnessed Mark Allen Gray placing unopened cans of beer in his lunch box at the start of a recent workday. She did not relay this information to any Hawkeye Construction Company, LLC, management person.

(more…)

Joe Main, assistant secretary of labor for Mine Safety and Health, has scheduled a conference call with news reporters for Friday to discuss his goals and concerns, and take questions from the media. It will be his first press conference or interview since being confirmed to run MSHA about a month ago.

I’ve previously blogged about What I would have asked him if  the U.S. Senate had bothered to have a confirmation hearing for Main. Let’s open this thread up and get more suggestions on what the media should ask Main during Friday’s conference call.