An impact evaluation of a federal mine safety training regulation on injury rates among US stone, sand, and gravel mine workers: An interrupted time-series analysis (Monforton & Windsor 2010)

In 1976, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) required health and safety training for any worker employed at a mine. This included at least 24 hours of training for new mine workers and at least 8 hours of refresher training for experienced miners annually. About 10,000 surface mines were exempt from this requirement. In 1999, a congressional directive (Part 46) dictated that previously exempt mines would no longer be exempt from health and safety training requirements. Mine operators were given one year to comply, and the nationally mandated training requirements took effect on October 1, 2000.

The MSHA Policy Part 46 rule stated that mines must create and implement a written plan for developing effective training programs for new and newly hired experienced miners, for new tasks, for hazard awareness, and for refresher courses. To be MSHA approved, the training plans had to contain mine operator or contractor names and identification numbers, information on the person responsible for health and safety training at the mine, a general description of the teaching methods and the course materials used in training, a list of persons and/or organizations who provide the training and their subject areas, and the evaluation procedures used to assess training effectiveness.