MSHA Alerts Highlight Lead Hazards, Housekeeping Practices

Two health alerts published last month by MSHA focus on lead hazards and housekeeping practices.

The health alert “Protecting Miners from Lead Hazards” urges miners to wear fit-tested, air-purifying respirators with high-efficiency filters in all work areas where they may be exposed to lead dust or fumes. Other actions miners can take to help prevent lead exposure include changing into clean work clothes and shoes before beginning work, washing their hands and faces before eating and drinking, and eating and drinking in areas free of lead dust and fumes. MSHA also advises miners to vacuum their work clothes and shoes before removing them and launder clothes at work when possible.

The agency’s alert on housekeeping describes similar recommendations for miners’ dusty work clothes and boots, which MSHA says can be “a significant source of secondary exposures” to respirable dust and silica. The alert recommends the use of cleaning stations and booths for work clothes, boot-washing stations near production areas, and boot brushes outside of equipment cabs, control rooms, and offices. Practices such as using a sweeping compound to reduce dust when dry sweeping and using wet methods in housekeeping can also help reduce exposures, according to MSHA.

These and other alerts on mine safety and health can be found on the agency’s website.