Back to The MINER Act of 2006 and Related NIOSH Activities

Overview

Emergency situations are unfortunately an inherent part of mining. They range from medical and trauma emergencies to roof falls or slope failures with entrapment to mine fires and explosions. While there are many different kinds of situations, adequate planning and preparation will ensure an effective response. Effective response in turn will allow mine operators to deal with the situations, protect both workers and citizens during response events, and return the operation to production as quickly as possible.

Investigations of emergency response planning were conducted in the early 1990s by researchers of the former U.S. Bureau of Mines. Researchers looked a numerous aspects of emergency response planning including who should be involved in the planning process, assessing risk, identifying resources for developing a plan, and obtaining organizational support for the effort. The outputs of this previous research will be reviewed and updated based on new advances in the field of emergency response. They will be repackaged and disseminated to customers and stakeholders as a tool to help develop emergency response plans for mining operations.

References