United States National Mine Health and Safety Academy
Last updated The National Mine Health and Safety Academy
The United States National Mine Health and Safety Academy (MSHA) is a federal academy responsible for training the mine safety and health inspectors and technical support personnel of the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
There are nineteen federal academies run by the United States federal government.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is an agency of the United States Department of Labor which administers the provisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 to enforce compliance with mandatory safety and health standards as a means to eliminate fatal accidents, to reduce the frequency and severity of nonfatal accidents, to minimize health hazards, and to promote improved safety and health conditions in the nation's mines. MSHA carries out the mandates of the Mine Act at all mining and mineral processing operations in the United States, regardless of size, number of employees, commodity mined, or method of extraction. David Zatezalo is Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, and the head of MSHA.
The Academy is located in Beckley, West Virginia, on an 80-acre (320,000m2) site near the Raleigh County Airport. The Academy complex consists of nine buildings: The Residence Hall, Administration Building, Classroom Building, Mine Machinery Laboratory Building, Publication Distribution Center, Gymnasium, Maintenance and Equipment Building, Mine Emergency Operations Building, Mine Rescue Station and Mine Simulation Laboratory.
Beckley is a city in and the county seat of Raleigh County, West Virginia, United States. It was founded on April 4, 1838. Beckley was named in honor of John James Beckley, who was the first Clerk of the House of Representatives and the first Librarian of Congress. It was founded by his son Alfred Beckley (US Army general and Confederate militia commander. The current mayor is Rob Rappold.
Students are exposed to a variety of different disciplines in nine different laboratories: roof control, ground control, mine emergencies and rescue, ventilation, electrical systems, machinery, industrial hygiene, computer systems and underground mine simulation.
History
In a five-year period from 1906-1911, 13,228 miners were killed in U.S. coal mines. As a result, the Bureau of Mines was established by Congress on July 1, 1910, "to make diligent investigation of the methods of mining, especially in relation to the safety of miners and the appliances best adapted to prevent accidents."
In succeeding years, Congress passed other legislation designed to promote health and safety in the mines, including the 1966 Federal Metal and Nonmetallic Mine Safety Act (P.L. 89-577) and the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 (P.L. 91-173). The most recent regulatory legislation combined the coal and metal and nonmetal industries under one law--the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977. This act directed that "The National Mine Health and Safety Academy shall be...responsible for the training of mine safety and health inspectors, mining personnel, or other persons as the Secretaries of Labor and Interior shall designate. In performing this function, the Academy shall have the authority to enter into cooperative educational and training agreements with educational institutions, State governments, labor organizations, and mine operators and related industries." It is through the training provisions of this legislation that the National Mine Health and Safety Academy functions.
In response to the mandates of the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, on September 7, 1971, the Academy began inspector training in temporary facilities in Beckley, West Virginia. On August 17, 1976, the permanent facility, situated on 80 acres (320,000m2) of land donated by the Raleigh County Airport Authority, opened its doors with an official dedication. Michael George Zabetakis was the first superintendent of the Academy.
Michael George Zabetakis was a fire safety engineering specialist. He received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh in 1956. In 1965 he published data for flammability limits, autoignition, and burning-rate data for more than 200 combustible gases and vapors in air and other oxidants, as well as of empirical rules and graphs that can be used to predict similar data for thousands of other combustibles under a variety of environmental conditions. The work remains one of the most widely cited sources of flammability data. Despite its age it was still in 1999 considered the standard reference. Zabetakis often uses flammability diagrams to show flammable properties of fuel-air-nitrogen mixtures. Zabetakis was the first superintendent of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy.
On July 25, 1979, Public Law 96-38 transferred the activities and functions of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Labor.
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