One Hundred Years of Federal Mining Safety and Health Research

esponsibility for respirator activities arising from the 1969 Coal Act and is an international
leader in respirator testing, certification, and research.
5.3 Dismemberment of the USBM
On May 7, 1973, the Secretary of the Interior issued Secretarial Order No. 2953, creating a new
agency within the Department of the Interior. Most of the health and safety enforcement
functions were separated from the Bureau and placed in the new agency, which was named the
Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration (MESA). Under the order, MESA became
operative on July 16, 1973. The functions, staff, and facilities that had formerly been under the
Deputy Director for Health and Safety in the Bureau were transferred to MESA. The functions
transferred included mine health and safety inspection, technical support, assessment and
compliance, and education and training. The new Mining Health and Safety Academy being
constructed at Beckley, WV, was also eventually transferred to MESA. The functions of energy,
metallurgical, and mining research, as well as the mineral supply information functions were
retained by the Bureau, and the mining health and safety research program and staff remained
with the Bureau. Approximately half of the facilities and staff of the Bureau were thus
transferred to the new agency [DOI 1973].
The stated reason for the creation of MESA was to eliminate the possibility of a conflict of
interest in the Bureau, because the Bureau mission to encourage the economic development of
mineral resources might appear to conflict with the responsibility to enforce mining health and
safety laws. The creation of the new agency left MESA free to devote its entire effort to the
enforcement of mining health and safety laws.
By 1973, the safety record in coal mines was showing substantial improvement. The number of
fatalities that year was 132, and the fatality rate was 0.45 per million man-hours worked—new
record lows for these statistics. During 1973, the number of active underground coal mines also
decreased from 1,663 to 1,425. American coal production in 1973 was 597 million tons, of
which slightly more than half was from underground mines.
Expenditures by the Bureau for mining health and safety research in fiscal year 1973 were $28.4
million ($138 million in 2009 dollars). Some of the significant recent developments reported by
the Bureau that year were:
• Degasification techniques for removal of methane from coalbeds ahead of mining.
• Machine-mounted systems for suppression of methane ignitions at the mining face.
• Explosion-proof bulkheads to preserve ventilation after explosions.
• Remote sealing of mine passageways to control fires.
• Canopies and cabs to protect equipment operators.
• Improved mine lighting and communications systems.
• Systems for locating trapped miners.
• A personal carbon monoxide alarm.
• Mine air monitoring systems.
43