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MSHA's Safety Targets Program
Fall Protection Safety Awareness
Slips and falls are a major cause of accidents in the mining industry. From 2000 to 2008, accidents involving slips and falls and falls from elevation have resulted in seventy-three fatalities. An alarming statistic is that of the seventy-three fatalities, fifty-two were related to the failure to properly tie-off or to tie-off in combination with other fall prevention measures. In this same time period, there have been 18,577 NFDL slip and fall accidents in the mining industry. This equates to an average of over 2100 slip and fall accidents per year in the mining industry. These statistics are a strong indication that persons working at mines are not receiving proper training in fall prevention and protection and specifically in the use of personal fall arrest equipment. MSHA emphasizes that miners must be properly trained to recognize fall hazards, evaluate the risks associated with each hazard, and to control fall hazards through preventative or protective measures.

Fall hazard issues in the mining industry include the following:
  • Not properly tying-off /improper use of fall protection equipment
  • Barriers, guardrails, floor penetration covers, signs, handrail, platforms
  • Plant equipment access
  • Unsecured/inadequate/obstructed travel ways or walkways
  • Miners engulfed by materials in bins/hoppers
  • Tanker truck accessibility
  • Haul truck accessibility checking loads/tarping
  • Ladder use
  • Falls into water i.e. dredges/impoundments
  • Falls from roofs including falls through skylights
  • Mobile equipment ingress/egress
  • Man lifts and boom trucks
  • Highwalls
MSHA strongly encourages mine operators and contractors to work closely with their employees to identify fall hazards, raise awareness and jointly develop comprehensive fall protection programs to eliminate fall hazards or provide appropriate protection against them.

This package is being supplied to increase slip and fall protection awareness. All your mining operations should be provided a copy of this package to reinforce their knowledge about fall hazard awareness.

The life you save may be your own.

Please share this information with your co-workers and discuss it at safety meetings. If you have questions or need additional copies of this information, please contact Michael Getto by phone
at 304 547 2303 or by email at getto.michael@dol.gov.



Content
    Please note, due to the extensive nature of the content found on the CD's and/or DVD's we are providing you with a sample of what may be found. If you are interested in the entire content, please see the contact information above.
Best Practice Cards:
  • BP 62 - Slips or Falls Underground - Anthracite
  • BP 70 - Slips and Falls on Mobile Equipment
CD #1 - "Fall Protection Awareness" CD #2 - "Fall Protection Safety Awareness 2008 Safety Target" DVD #1 - Fall Protection Awareness (Videos) DVD #2 - Courtesy of Miller Fall Protection (On DVD only)
  • Basics of Fall Protection
  • Six Steps That Could Save Your Life
  • Confined Space
  • Roadshow (Training Session on Basics of Fall Protection)
DVD #3 - Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) Fatalgrams
  • Coal and Metal & Nonmetal Fall Protection Outreach Information


  • Miner's Tips and Safety Ideas


  • Innovative Products


  • Hazard Alerts


  • OSHA Fall Prevention/Protection Information and Bulletins
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    Some or all of the files available on this page are PDF. For more information on PDF, PDF readers and accessibility issues, please use this link.