If you read through 30 CFR Part 46, the MSHA regulations related to safety training for most surface miners and other employees at those mines, you’ll see references to the MSHA Part 46 competent person role. But just what does that mean? What is a competent person according to MSHA and Part 46?

In this article, we’re going to look at those questions more closely and dig up the answers. Ha-ha! Mining pun intended!

In addition, we’re going to give you some resources that can help you prepare yourself or someone else to be a competent person for Part 46.

So let’s get started.

Along the way, we’re going to address some similar issues for Part 48, and we’ve written a similar similar article related to Part 48 and MSHA-approved instructors, so check that one out as well.

And at the end of this article, you can download a Free Guide to MSHA Training Requirements–check it out! 

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We all want a safer workplace, but we’re not always sure how to get there.

Fortunately, there are lots of good ideas and lots of places to find them. You can do worse than checking out OSHA, NIOSH, and MSHA, for example. There are professional safety organizations, such as the National Safety Council (NSC) and the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). And there are plenty of good EHS journals, including EHS Today, Occupational Health & Safety, and Industrial Safety and Hygiene News.

In this article, we’re going to consolidate a few topics we’ve written about in earlier posts, presenting twelve solid tools you can use to make your workplace safer. (Note: This article began with 12 tools/tips, but we’ve been adding to it and we think we’re up to 14 now–enjoy the extra bonus tips and let us know your own, too).
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When a contractor is working at a surface mine, it brings up a lot of questions regarding the MSHA Part 46 training requirements for contractors. For example, who’s responsible for what in terms of providing the MSHA Part 46 safety training? And, of course, there are questions about the type of training the contractor needs to receive, who pays, etc.

If you don’t know all the ins and outs of this issue now, you will by the time you finish this article. So let’s get started with this overview of MSHA Part 46 training for contract employees.

To help you answer more MSHA-related questions, we’ve put a free Guide to MSHA Training Requirements at the bottom of this article, too.

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We’re all in favor of safety training. But even better, we’re in favor of EFFECTIVE safety training.

But what IS effective safety training? What does that mean?

Effective safety training is training employees understand and remember. It’s training they later apply on the job. And ultimately, it’s safety training that will decrease the number of unsafe actions, increase the number of safe actions. It changes behavior on the job. It leads to decreased incident rates for near-misses, injuries, and illnesses. And it even makes a positive contribution to the company’s overall-bottom line.

And that’s what all safety managers want out of safety training, right?

For a few tips of how to make this happen, read on. We’ve even included a Free 60-Page Guide to Effective Safety Training at the bottom of this article.

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