The meeting will be held at 9am local time February 8 at the George Washington Hotel in Washington, Pennsylvania, and should adjourn by 5pm.

The first four meetings were held at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beaver, West Virginia, and in Indiana, Alabama and Utah.

Jenny Wiley State Resort Park in Prestonburg, Kentucky, will host the sixth event on February 10, and the final hearing will be at the MSHA Headquarters office in Arlington, Virginia, on February 15.

Each hearing’s itinerary includes an opening statement from MSHA, followed by an opportunity for members of the public to make oral presentations. A written request is not required to speak; however, individuals and representatives of organizations wishing to speak are encouraged to notify the agency in advance for scheduling purposes.

MSHA will accept post-hearing written comments and other appropriate information for the record from any interested party, including those not presenting oral statements.

Comments must be received by midnight EST on May 2; the deadline date was extended earlier this month from an initial deadline of February 28.

Assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health Joseph Main noted last October that the proposed rule – Lowering Miners' Exposure to Respirable Coal Mine Dust, Including Continuous Personal Dust Monitors – would significantly improve health protection for both underground and surface coal miners through the reduction of occupational exposure to respirable coal mine dust.

“It will lower the risk that they will suffer material impairment of health or functional capacity over their working lives,” he said.

The major provisions of the proposal would lower the existing respirable dust exposure limit from 2 milligrams per cubic meter to 1mg/cu.m over a 24-month phase-in period, require full-shift sampling, and redefine the term “normal production shift”

The proposed rule would also provide for the use of a single full-shift compliance sampling under the mine operator and MSHA’s inspector sampling programs, establish requirements for use of a continuous personal dust monitor to monitor exposure, and expand medical surveillance of coal miners.

The proposed rule was published on October 19, 2010, and is available at http://www.msha.gov/REGS/FEDREG/PROPOSED/2010Prop/2010-25249.pdf.