U.S. Department of Labor

Mine Safety and Health Administration 1100 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, Virginia 22209-3939

ISSUE DATE: APRIL 1, 2003

PROGRAM INFORMATION BULLETIN NO. P03-6

FROM:           MARK E. SKILES  
                       Director of Technical Support

                        RAY McKINNEY  
                        Administrator for
                             Coal Mine Safety and Health

                        ROBERT M. FRIEND  
                        Administrator for
                             Metal and Nonmetal Mine Safety and Health

SUBJECT:    Mine Safety Appliances (MSA) Five Star Alarm, Potential for
                        Inaccurate Methane Readings

Who Needs this information?
Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) enforcement personnel, coal and metal and nonmetal mine operators, miners' representatives and repair shops.

Why is MSHA issuing this bulletin?
To inform the industry of a potential inability of the MSA Five Star Alarm, MSHA Approval Number 8C-67-0, to provide accurate methane detection.

What is the background for this notification?
MSHA has discovered that MSA produced units containing a circuit board not in accordance with the instrument's approval. Testing at the Approval and Certification Center has shown that detectors assembled with the Non-Approved circuit board may provide inaccurate methane readings after being dropped.

Mechanical strength testing, also known as drop testing, is performed as part of the approval process for hand held instruments. The drop test requires that instruments accurately detect methane after being dropped on an oak floor from a height of three feet.

After dropping or impact the MSA Five Star Alarm may appear to be working properly, but in fact may be providing inaccurate low readings. The Approval and Certification Center has classified this as a critical defect, meaning that it will create a safety hazard.

Will all MSA Five Star Alarms provide inaccurate readings?
Research at MSHA's Approval and Certification Center indicates only those units assembled with the non-approved circuit board are susceptible to failure caused by dropping or impact. Instruments assembled with the approved circuit board successfully passed drop testing.

The circuit board in question is described as the "sensor printed circuit board assembly". MSA labels circuit boards with a part number. The MSA part number of the approved board is 815477. The MSA part number of the Non-Approved circuit board is 10013453 on one side and 10013454 on the other side. Inspection of the instrument to determine which board is installed requires disassembly of the instrument. Only persons familiar with the design of the instrument should attempt disassembly.

MSA Five Star Alarms assembled since 1999 may have the non-approved board installed. Additionally any Five Star instruments repaired or serviced in the same time frame may also have the non-approved board installed.

What steps should be taken?

• Discontinue use of the MSA Five Star Alarm, MSHA Approval Number 8C-67-0. Perform all required gas checks with other approved gas detection instruments.



• Mine operators should contact MSA to determine if their instrument contains the approved or unapproved board. MSA Five Star Personal Alarms that have been verified to have the approved circuit board installed may be used.