Industry Should Lead, Not Follow Regulations

There were three mine disasters in 2006 before the latest disaster at the Crandall mine in Utah. At the Crandall mine, a seismic event equivalent to a 3.9 magnitude earthquake trapped six miners. Days later, during the rescue effort, another collapse killed three rescuers, including a member of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Weeks later, the company is still boring holes into the mine, trying to recover the bodies.

This has led the governor of Utah to investigate whether state mine safety regulations need to be tightened because federal regulations aren’t stringent enough. More significantly, OMB Watch has said “The Aug. 13 issue of Mine Safety and Health News reported that Dr. R. Larry Grayson, who heads the Pennsylvania State University mining and engineering program, agreed
…the mining company may have been following the MSHA-approved mining plan, but that does not mean that it was safe.”

This is a worrisome trend. Professors are second-guessing regulators, who are second-guessing the people in the industry itself.

What is really needed here is some thought about good incident management systems and real-time emergency response systems in the mining industry overall. There is actually a global need for stronger health and safety protection for the mining industry, including these incidents as well as the ones in China. Would a better emergency response or incident management
system have helped the rescue workers respond more efficiently? I think so. Good systems can be proactive, rather than reactive, even in situations that can’t be predicted, like seismic shifts.

OMB Watch goes on to point out that perhaps it is wrong to allow industry to comply voluntarily with regulations. A promotional email I got from them this morning said “Two recent stories exhibit the problems associated with
voluntary industry compliance with federal rules. In New York, Governor Elliot Spitzer is using state law to enforce a mandatory recall of children’s toys contaminated by lead paint. Spitzer cites the federal government’s weak voluntary recall system as reason for pursuing action at the state level.”

The writer goes on to discuss the use of “compliance assistance” in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration in the Crandall disaster.

What is the takeaway from this? Industry should lead, not follow, the regulations. I don’t know one client of ours (or non-client for that matter), who would like to experience a disaster like Crandall if it could be anticipated. That’s what GRC initiatives are designed to address.

Add comment August 30th, 2007