The S&S Rate Calculator, available via the US Mine Safety and Health Administration web site, is an enhancement to the agency’s Pattern of Violations Monitoring Tool released two years ago.
The POV tool allows mines and public stakeholders, using just the operation’s seven-digit identification number, to determine S&S rates against MSHA’s screening criteria. Users can also see a rate for any specific date range.
“It is the mine operator’s responsibility to track its violation and injury histories to determine whether it needs to take action to comply with mine safety laws, protect miners and not trigger a POV notice,” assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health Joseph Main said.
“Operators who implement a corrective action program can use this tool, which complements the POV monitoring tool, to track their progress and make sure a corrective action program is effectively addressing the mine’s S&S rate.”
MSHA published its final rule for revising POV regulations in January.
Those operations nearing POV status are given the opportunity to implement a corrective action program; further, MSHA may consider a mine’s effective implementation of a federally approved program as a mitigating circumstance in its review.
For those mines that enter POV status, each S&S violation will result in a withdrawal order and will remain so until a complete federal inspection results in no S&S violations.
S&S violations, according to federal outlines, are violations of a mandatory health or safety standard that “significantly and substantially contributes to the cause and effect of a coal or other mine safety or health hazard”.
The S&S Rate Calculator is available at http://www.msha.gov/DRS/SNSRateCalculator.asp.
