MSHA Automates Enforcement with Laptop Computers

What began as a pilot project nearly four years ago has evolved into a program that will put laptop computers in the hands of all federal mine inspectors by year's end. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is arming its enforcement staff with portable computers to help them do their jobs more effectively and efficiently.

Through the use of laptop computers, mine inspectors will replace handwritten forms with electronic ones when issuing a safety or health citation. In addition, they will have at their fingertips a variety of reference materials and applications, including agency regulations, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act, the Program Policy Manual, historical inspection results, and accident and injury rates. Currently, seventy-five percent of the agency's nearly 850 inspectors have been equipped with laptops. Two-hundred more machines are on order and slated for delivery by August 31, 1998.

"This is an exciting endeavor for MSHA," said J. Davitt McAteer, assistant secretary for mine safety and health. "Using laptop computers will enable our inspectors to spend more time in the mines and less time filling out paperwork. Ultimately, that serves to benefit the men and women who work in our nation's mines.

"Inspectors can compose notes, observations or reports while ideas are still fresh in their minds, and can then transfer these notes into the narrative section of a citation," said McAteer.

Development of MSHA's pilot program began in five MSHA field offices in 1994. Despite some initial shortcomings with regard to applications and training, the software and hardware have been upgraded, and more than 76,000 citations have been issued electronically since December 1995.

MSHA has developed a number of resources to assist mine inspectors in becoming proficient with their laptop computers:

-- A comprehensive training course at the Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beckley, West Virginia.

-- The Laptop Steering Committee, established in March 1998, is made up of inspectors, supervisors and computer programmers who recommend priorities for software modification, training and future application development based on members' input.

-- A help desk for troubleshooting and technical assistance.

-- A quarterly newsletter that communicates information about laptops to MSHA employees.

-- The future establishment of an electronic bulletin board to aid inspectors at all levels of computer expertise in sharing information about applications they have developed, commercial software programs, reference materials and solutions to laptop technology problems.

Overall, inspectors have expressed their satisfaction with the transition from handwritten to electronic citations. Improvements in legibility and professional appearance also have scored points with mine operators and attorneys.