MSHA, PCA Alliance Focuses on Cement Facility Safety

"This alliance will be a significant step forward in our efforts to ensure that workers go home from their jobs healthy and safe. Increasing cement worker safety awareness will help reduce risk, and improve injury and illness rates in the industry," said MSHA Administrator Richard E. Stickler during a signing ceremony with PCA President and Chief Executive Officer Brian McCarthy.

The alliance brings MSHA and the PCA together to promote a national dialogue on the safety and health of employees working in the cement industry. MSHA and the PCA will work together and combine resources and expertise to jointly engage in health and safety outreach efforts to the nation's cement workers.

The alliance aims to:

• Develop and distribute industry-specific health and safety information.
• Analyze citation data to create training and education tools that will focus the industry on high priority challenges to cement worker health and safety.
• Evaluate hazards using applied engineering techniques to improve cement plant safety and health.
• Identify safety and health conditions that the alliance needs to direct its attention through the analysis of industry-specific surveys.

MSHA's alliance program enables organizations committed to mine safety and health to collaborate with the agency to prevent injuries and illnesses in the workplace. According to MSHA, the all-injury rate for mines declined 33 percent between 2000 and 2007 to an all-time low of 3.43 reported injuries per 200,000 hours worked.