FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Isakson Praises Improvements in Mine Safety
‘We Have Made Great Progress Over the Last Year’

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) today praised the work of Congress and federal agencies such as the Mine Safety and Health Administration as well as mine operators and their employees for continuing efforts to improve safety in mines across the country.

Isakson participated in a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety to discuss progress in mine safety since the January 2006 explosion at Sago Mine in West Virginia. Isakson is Ranking Member of the subcommittee.

“We have made great progress over the last year, and we will continue to work towards the day that every miner returns home to the arms of their loved ones safely,” Isakson said. “I’m pleased that much has changed since the tragic events of 2006, and I firmly believe the legacy of the Sago tragedy is to follow the lessons we have learned so that future generations of miners do not suffer the same fate.”  

Isakson said he was particularly impressed with the advances toward a new self-contained self-rescue unit that allows a miner to switch to a secondary supply of breathable air without removing the mouthpiece from his original supply of oxygen.   

In January 2006, Isakson met with the families of the 12 miners killed in the January 2, 2006, explosion at Sago Mine. After that visit, he worked with members of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in drafting bipartisan legislation to improve mine safety regulations and reduce safety risks for miners across the country. 

The resulting Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006, also known as the MINER Act, received overwhelming support in both Houses and was signed into law by President Bush on June 15, 2006.  The new law established timelines for new and better mine safety technology, required mines maintain and continuously update emergency response plans, and raised the criminal penalty cap as well as the maximum civil penalty for flagrant violations of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act.

Since the passage of the MINER Act, more than 10,000 self-contained self-rescue units have been placed in underground mines, and more are expected to be added as soon as they can be manufactured. In addition, miners are being trained and re-trained in the use of the self-contained self-rescue units, which provide respiratory protection for persons escaping or evacuating mines.  Government and private sector research on these and a host of other safety technologies is continuing at an unprecedented pace.

Mines have also installed new “lifelines” in their escape ways so miners can find their way out of the mine even in darkness. Dozens of coal mines have implemented new state-of-the-art systems to track miners while underground and to provide better communication in the wake of an accident. New mine rescue teams have been added in more than 30 of the nation’s underground mines with more on the way.

Last week, the Mine Safety and Health Administration released the results of its investigation into the tragedy at Sago Mine in West Virginia. The team investigating the explosion was comprised of experts in mine safety from around the country, and it determined that a pump cable found inside a sealed area of the Sago Mine served as a conduit for the lightning strike that ignited the explosion. As a result, the agency invoked its authority to issue emergency rules to strengthen the design, construction, maintenance and repair of seals, as well as requirements for sampling and controlling atmospheres behind seals.

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