Second Supporting Legislation

Attachment A2:

Mine Safety and Health Act of 1970

42 CFR Parts 85 and 85a

Federal Mine Safety & Health Act of 1977,

Public Law 91-173,

as amended by Public Law 95-164*

An Act

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may

be cited as the "Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1970."

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TITLE III-INTERIM MANDATORY SAFETY

STANDARDS FOR UNDERGROUND COAL MINES

COVERAGE

SEC. 301. (a) The provisions of sections 302 through 318 of this title shall be interim mandatory safety

standards applicable to all underground coal mines until superseded in whole or in part by improved

mandatory safety standards promulgated by the Secretary under the provisions of section 101 of this

Act, and shall be enforced in the same manner and to the same extent as any mandatory safety standard

promulgated under section 101 of this Act. Any orders issued in the enforcement of the interim

standards set forth in this title shall be subject to review as provided in title I of this Act.

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TITLE V--ADMINISTRATION

RESEARCH

SEC. 501. (a) The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, as

appropriate, shall conduct such studies, research, experiments, and demonstrations as may be

appropriate--

(1) to improve working conditions and practices in coal or other mines, and to prevent accidents

and occupational diseases originating in the coal or other mining industry;

(2) to develop new or improved methods of recovering persons in coal or other mines after an

accident;

(3) to develop new or improved means and methods of communication from the surface to the

underground area of a coal or other mine;

(4) to develop new or improved means and methods of reducing concentrations of respirable dust

in the mine atmosphere of active workings of the coal or other mine;

(5) to develop epidemiological information to (A) identify and define positive factors involved in

occupational diseases of miners, (B) provide information on the incidence and prevalence of

pneumoconiosis and other respiratory ailments of miners, and (C) improve mandatory health

standards;

(6) to develop techniques for the prevention and control of occupational diseases of miners,

including tests for hypersusceptibility and early detection;

(7) to evaluate the effect on bodily impairment and occupational disability of miners afflicted

with an occupational disease;

(8) to prepare and publish from time to time, reports on all significant aspects of occupational

diseases of miners as well as on the medical aspects of injuries, other than diseases, which are

revealed by the research carried on pursuant to this subsection;

(9) to study the relationship between coal or other mine environments and occupational diseases

of miners;

(10) to develop new and improved underground equipment and other sources of power for such

equipment which will provide greater safety;

(11) to determine, upon the written request by any operator or authorized representative of

miners, specifying with reasonable particularity the grounds upon which such request is made,

whether any substance normally found in a coal or other mine has potentially toxic effects in the

concentrations normally found in the coal or other mine or whether any physical agents or

equipment found or used in a coal or other mine has potentially hazardous effects, and shall

submit such determinations to both the operators and miners as soon as possible; and

(12) for such other purposes as they deem necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act