In 45 states, the Navajo Nation, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, MSHA has awarded more than $10.5 million in grants to state departments, agencies, and state-supported universities and colleges for miner safety and health education.
According to a recent release, this funding will support essential training and re-training initiatives targeting miners in diverse environments, such as surface and underground coal, metal, nonmetal, shell dredging, and other aggregate mining operations. Of the 47 grant recipients, the University of Texas at Austin and Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection received the most with $736,187 and $587,556, respectively.
“Training is crucial to ensuring the protection of miners’ safety and health and the grants awarded today will support these essential training programs,” MSHA Assistant Secretary Chris Williamson said in a statement. “Every miner deserves to end their shift safe and healthy, and quality educational programs will go a long way toward reducing mining accidents, injuries and illnesses.”
The money will be used by grantees to create locally specific initiatives that address the circumstances and risks that miners may encounter at work. Each state and territory can request for resources based on its unique demands and mining settings thanks to this funding method. MSHA-sponsored localized training attempts to give miners the abilities and information they need to manage the hazards they face in their areas.
