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Mine Safety and Health Administration MSHA's Accident Prevention Program
Safety Idea

Life Jackets

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 Safety Something YOU can live with!
Mine Type: All Surface Mines
Category: General Safety


Life Jackets (also known as personal flotation devices or PFDs) are appropriately named - they truly can save your life. Sadly, miners working on dredges or around ponds and lakes sometimes fail to wear them for a variety of reasons. Consider the following when working around water.

Life Jackets


  • Establish and enforce policies for wearing PFD.
  • Consider only Type I and Type V PFDs. Type I PFDs are designed to turn most unconscious wearers face-up.
  • Consider employee's size and weight when selecting PFDs.
  • Replace worn or damaged PFDs immediately.
Eighteen drowning accidents have occurred that involved miners on the job since January 1995. Sixteen were NOT wearing a personal flotation device (PFD). In addition, the U.S. Coast Guard reported that approximately 90 percent of the 484 victims involved in drowning accidents in 2004 were NOT wearing a PFD / lifejacket.

MSHA extends a thank you and a tip of the hardhat to
TERRY TYSON,
a winner of a limited edition sticker and patch.
If you have a tip you would like to pass on, you can email it to zzMSHA-MinersTips@dol.gov.
If your tip is selected, you will receive credit in this space.


Issued: 12/12/2005
Tag # AP2005-S91740