Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 91.djvu/1332

 91 STAT. 1298 Employee exposures, recordkeeping regulatons.

Records, access.

Undue exposure, notification.

30 USC 841. Accident investigations. Records, availability.

Report to Secretary.

Inspections.

Immediate inspections. Violation or danger, notice to Secretary.

PUBLIC LAW 95-164—NOV. 9, 1977 "(c) The Secretary, in cooperation with the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, shall issue regulations requiring operators to maintain accurate records of employee exposures to potentially toxic materials or harmful physical agents which are required to be monitored or measured under any applicable mandatory health or safety standard promulgated under this Act. Such regulations shall provide miners or their representatives with an opportunity to observe such monitoring or measuring, and to have access to the records thereof. Such regulations shall also make appropriate provisions for each miner or former miner to have access to such records as will indicate his own exposure to toxic materials or harmful physical agents. Each operator shall promptly notify any miner who has been or is being exposed to toxic materials or harmful physical agents in concentrations or at levels which exceed those prescribed by an applicable mandatory health or safety standard promulgated under section 101, or mandated under title II, and shall inform any miner who is being thus exposed of the corrective action being taken. "(d) All accidents, including unintentional roof falls (except in any abandoned panels or in areas which are inaccessible or unsafe for inspections), shall be investigated by the operator or his agent to determine the cause and the means of preventing a recurrence. Records of such accidents and investigations shall be kept and the information shall be made available to the Secretary or his authorized representative and the appropriate State agency. Such records shall be open for inspection by interested persons. Such records shall include man-hours worked and shall be reported at a frequency determined by the Secretary, but at least annually. (e) Any information obtained by the Secretary or by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under this Act shall be obtained in such a manner as not to impose an unreasonable burden upon operators, especially those operating small businesses, consistent with the underlying purposes of this Act. Unnecessary duplication of effort in obtaining information shall be reduced to the maximum extent feasible. "(f) Subject to regulations issued by the Secretary, a representative of the operator and a representative authorized by his miners shall be given an opportunity to accompany the Secretary or his authorized representative during the physical inspection of any coal or other mine made pursuant to the provisions of subsection (a), for the purpose of aiding such inspection and to participate in pre- or post-inspection conferences held at the mine. Where there is no authorized miner representative, the Secretary or his authorized representative shall consult with a reasonable number of miners concerning matters of health and safety in such mine. Such representative of miners who is also an employee of the operator shall suffer no loss of pay during the period of his participation in the inspection made under this subsection. To the extent that the Secretary or authorized representative of the Secretary determines that more than one representative from each party would further aid the inspection, he can permit each party to have an equal number of such additional representatives. However, only one such representative of miners who is an employee of the operator shall be entitled to suffer no loss of pay during the period of such participation under the provisions of this subsection. Compliance with this subsection shall not be a jurisdictional prerequisite to the enforcement of any provision of this Act. "(g)(1) Whenever a repersentative of the miners or a miner in the case of a coal or other mine where there is no such representa-

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