Updated: Here’s a print story with more information on this SCSR recall.
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration just posted a notice on its Web site announcing a joint investigation with NIOSH into a problem with CSE Corp.’s self-contained self-rescuer units, the SR-100.
The MSHA notice says:
During a routine quality control test using a breathing simulator, CSE discovered that one SCSR delivered less than expected oxygen. A total of 4,017 units shipped from this lot may be affected. MSHA has requested CSE provide the serial numbers of affected units and the names of operators who purchased them.
MSHA posted a CSE “User Notice” which blamed the problem on “a possible issue with a component part … involving a shipment of oxygen cylinders from its supplier.” The company said:
CSE is investigating the potential that the breathing bag in the affected SR-100 units may receive less oxygen than the optimum amount of oxygen necessary for full inflation, if the unit is started with the oxygen cylinder.
The general public probably never heard of an SCSR (self-contained self-rescuer) before Jan. 2, 2006. But the importance of these little devices became all too clear as the Sago Mine disaster unfolded — and even more clear after Aracoma and Darby.
Don’t forget that Sago survivor Randal McCloy told investigators that SCSRs for four of the 12 trapped miners would not start. McCloy described how he tried especially hard to start the rescuer that belonged to his mining partner, Jerry Groves:
I fought with it for I don’ t know how long, trying to mess with that valve, blow air through it, or anything I could do, but nothing would work.
Over the years, miners have repeatedly complained about SCSRs not starting or appearing to start very slowly. Government and industry officials have generally dismissed those complaints. They said miners were not properly trained and did not understand how the SCSRs worked.
CSE Corp. President Scott Shearer, with one of his company’s widely used SR-100 SCSRs.
As CSE explained in its User Notice, the SR-100 primarily uses a chemical process to generate the oxygen needed for the 60-minute air supply provided by the unit. Generally, the preferred way to start the unit is with an oxygen cylinder that will inflate the breathing bag when the user pulls a large orange tab while donning the unit. If that doesn’t work, the unit can be started manually by blowing into the mouthpiece until the breathing bag inflates.
Now, though, CSE is advising:
If for any reason a unit does not inflate the breathing bag, the user should don another unit if one is readily available. If a second unit is not readily available, the manual start should be used.
Neither MSHA nor CSE identified the supplier of the oxygen cylinders in question. But part of the litigation that followed the Sago disaster targeted a South African company, Afrox, which was one of CSE’s oxygen cylinder suppliers.
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‘ Toyota” type self rescuers ? Maybe the mine safety officials will cry, like Mr. Toyoda did, to get off the hook.
[...] You’ll recall that back in February CSE Corp. announced a recall of about 4,000 of its SR-100 model SCSR units. See our print story about that here and a Coal Tattoo blog post here. [...]
[...] Associated Press has picked up on the story covered here and in the Gazette previously (see here, here, here and here) concerning problems with the most widely used emergency breathing device in [...]