While the US Mine Safety and Health Administration’s rule amendments to be published Friday indicate revised requirements regarding combustible materials and rock dust, no specific protocol for real-time dust monitoring technology was broached.

Real-time coal dust meters which provide explosibility information on digital displays remain unrequired by the MSHA.

Testifying before a US government committee on education and the workforce, United Mine Workers of America president Cecil Roberts said the slow feedback from outdated dust testing procedures meant workers could be exposed to dangerous environments while lab work is still being processed.

“[T]he current protocol provides for the samples to be sent to MSHA’s lab where the agency uses antiquated equipment to test the samples,” he said.

“It takes two to three weeks to return the results.”

Roberts noted that such delays in data analysis caused dust measurements deemed dangerous at UBB to go unreported until after the disaster.

“We are left to wonder whether having the results in real time would have averted this disaster,” he said.

At a hearing last week with the US House of Representatives, Director of the Office of Mine Safety and Health Research at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Jeffery Kohler confirmed that real-time coal dust explosibility meters were commercially available.

“Presently, some mine operators are beginning to use the CDEM to assess the explosion hazard and make adjustments in real time,” he told the assembly.

Roberts likewise said that operators including Consol Energy, Patriot Coal and Alpha Natural Resources are using CDEMs despite a lack of regulatory imperative.