The Federal Mine Safety Health Administration (MSHA) has recently announced new rules governing airborne asbestos levels in mines across the country, finally bringing the mining industry into the same asbestos regulatory levels as are industries that are covered by OSHA standards.

The new rules lower the allowable fiber concentration in regular minespaces from two fibers per cubic centimeter to 0.1 fibers per cubic centimeter—a 95% reduction in the allowable density of fiber concentration. The rules also lowered the allowable limit at which workers can briefly be exposed to higher concentration levels. The previous rules stated that brief exposures could as high as 10 fibers per cubic centimeter for up to 15 minutes, while the new rules state that exposures can only occur with concentrations up to 1 fiber/cc for 30 minutes.

The rules changes were long fought-for by miners’ advocates and were actually first proposed in 1999 by the U.S. Department of Labor, which is MSHA’s parent organization. While no asbestos is mined in the U.S. these days, there have been a number of cases where the ore from certain mines was found to have some kind of asbestos contamination. The vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana is probably the most famous example of this kind of contamination, but other examples also exist. There are currently a number of studies being conducted in the State of Minnesota to analyze the high numbers of mesothelioma cases, mainly pleural mesothelioma, that are found among the State’s Iron Range workers—none of whom work with directly with asbestos, but who may have been exposed to the mineral in contaminated taconite mines. The new MSHA guidelines were designed to protect miners from these kinds of situations.

Richard E. Stickler, acting assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, has said,

“This final rule will help improve health protection for miners who work in an environment where asbestos is present...Furthermore, it will help lower the risk of material impairment of health or functional capacity over a miner’s working lifetime.”

Labels: asbestos