Catamount, MSHA, and OSHA News - Catamount Consulting

Responding to Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Catamount Consulting is continuing to monitor the current health issues and concerns resulting from the coronavirus (COVID-19). As we all know, the response to the COVID-19 outbreak is changing on a daily or even hourly basis. In light of the recent recommendations announced by the White House and the CDC to limit group gatherings to less than 10 people, Catamount Consulting has decided to offer a new virtual training program.

This program will be a series of live web conference trainings with a certified instructor; participants will be provided with training materials and visual aids during the training, and be able to interact with the trainer. We are working our hardest to create a training environment that closely resembles an in-person training.

We will be rolling out a host of topics to ensure everyone receives the certifications they need while jobs are on hold and groups are limited.

Some of the topics customers have shown interest in are:

MSHA Part 46 Annual Refresher Training
Globally Harmonized System (GHS) Hazcom
Silica
Reasonable Suspicion
Supervisor Training
Blood-borne Pathogens

We welcome any and all feedback on the subject and look forward to hearing from you. Initial virtual class announcements will be sent via email over the next few days. We will also list classes on our website and post them on our Facebook.

If there are certain topics or certifications that you would like to see covered, please let us know by responding to this email or by calling us at (518) 623-2352. We can accommodate groups of all sizes.

We at Catamount Consulting want to stress that the health and safety of our customers and their employees is our primary concern and that if you are not feeling well, please don’t go to work or go out among crowds.

MSHA Updates its Penalties

Federal law requires DOL to adjust civil penalties for inflation by January 15th of each year and to issue a final rule in the Federal Register. This year?s publication was delayed due to the partial government shutdown. The new penalty levels took effect yesterday.? See the full story here.

MSHA Publishes Final Workplace Exam Rule

The final version of MSHA’s Workplace Examination rule was published on April 9, 2018.?It appears to retain the bulk of the changes imposed by the January 2017 rulemaking.?The new rule takes effect June 2, 2018.

What does it require?:

A competent person must complete a workplace examination at least once each shift for each working place where miners are scheduled to work.
The examination must be conducted ?before work begins or as miners begin work in that place.?
Mine operators must promptly initiate any necessary corrective actions for identified adverse health and safety conditions.
Mine operators must provide timely notification of adverse conditions that are found but are not promptly corrected to miners who will be working in that place.
The examination record must be completed prior to the end of the shift, and it must contain:
the “name of the person conducting the examination;”
the “date of the examination”
the “location of all areas examined;”
a “description of each condition found that may adversely affect the safety or health of miners” (except conditions that are corrected promptly); and
the date the corrective action was taken (except with regard to conditions that are corrected promptly and do not have to be recorded on the examination record.)
the mine operator must keep the examination record for one year and make the record available to MSHA and the miners’ representative, with a copy provided upon request.

What do you need to do?

ensure you have proper paperwork
check records to be sure that proper follow-up occurs in documenting corrective actions.
retrain all miners on the new protocols
audit crews to ensure that they perform all required examnations of the right places at the right times (before or as work begins, and before exposure of miners to adverse conditions) and with notice to miners of adverse conditions found that are not promptly corrected

For questions or if you need help implementing the proper paperwork contact our office at (518) 623-2352.

Catamount Consulting Announces Addition of New Mobile Hearing Trailer

Catamount Consulting, a leading national safety consulting firm, today announced they have added a new Mobile Hearing Trailer to their existing services.

Catamount Consulting delivers a complete audiometric testing solution for any size company in all Northeastern states. Our Hearing Conservation Programs are designed to make OSHA & MSHA compliance fast, easy and affordable. Sending your employees off-site for hearing testing consumes costly travel and labor expenses, that?s why Catamount comes to you. Our Hearing Conservation Programs include: Noise Level Monitoring, On-site Hearing Testing, Training & Education, Reporting and Data Management, Consultation and Review, Hearing Protection fitting, CAOHC-Certified professionals.

The new Mobile Hearing Trailer can provide group testing of up to 6 employees every 20 minutes, monitor ambient noise levels within booths, equipment calibration verified on a daily basis, validation retesting, immediate results available in English and Spanish, digital administrative reports sent directly to company contact.

Founded in 2005, Catamount Consulting is a national safety consulting firm with a team of dedicated consulting professionals whose practice is the implementation and execution of workplace safety and regulatory compliance programs. Services provided include OSHA training, MSHA training, general safety training, comprehensive safety services, rigging training, firearms training and safety instruction, safety audits and abatement, preparation for site inspections, citation litigation services and mobile hearing testing.

Safety Training: Leverage Technology to Improve Outcomes

It is common knowledge that training and development is essential for organizational success. People with greater skill, ability and knowledge will perform at a higher level than their peers. For mine and construction workers, this also means they work safer.

It?s no surprise, then, that the busiest time of year for safety training professionals is right now. Intermittently operated mines and construction sites will soon be producing again, and many new employees enter the industry…while many more return from seasonal layoffs. Training prepares these workers to safely navigate the potentially hazardous conditions that are either entirely new or not fresh to them.

Timely and relevant training will also help boost productivity. By closing skills, knowledge and performance gaps, as well as arming your employees with new ideas, best practices and skills that they can put into practice in their jobs right away, their competence, ability and confidence levels increase. As a result, these employees are able to make better decisions and do their jobs smarter, more efficiently and more safely.

Henry Ford once said: ?The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.?

Fortunately, technology is making training better and easier to deliver than ever. More important, it facilates a more diverse approach. Every organization and every work site has unique needs, and the ability to customize training to meet these needs will yield better results.

The following options highlight the most common delivery channels for safety training available today:

Open enrollment classes
On-site training
Seminars and vendor fairs
Online training and learning management systems

For most organizations, blended learning solutions often prove to be the best option. For example, balancing on-site training and classes with a cloud-based learning management system provides for greater efficiency, improved tracking, and easy delivery of common training requirements, while still allowing for worksite specific programs.

The ability to seamlessly and cost-effectively combine different training delivery methods, which technology allows for, creates more comprehensive, effective training. It?s good for both employees and employers, and it?s good for the bottom line?safer, higher producing worksites.

About the author: Scott McKenna is president of Catamount Consulting?s New York office and is a professional member of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME), a certified instructor with the Mine Safety Health Administration, and an OSHA Certified Construction Trainer. He can be reached at smckenna@catamountconsultingllc.eliteventure.dev or (518) 623-2352.