Results are in for the 2008 Metal/Nonmetal and International Mine Rescue Contest. Congratulations to Cargill Deicing Technology's Whiskey Island team from the Cleveland, OH mine for its salt industry-leading overall 6th place award. Joe Desko is the team leader.

The program is sponsored by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. Ten teams from eight countries participated. Host Team U.S.A. finished fourth.

Salt mine rescue teams were well represented among the leaders in the several individual skills competitions.

In the multi-gas instrument benchman contest, Ryan Weese of Cargill's Whiskey Island team took 2nd, Steve Allanson on Cargill's second Cleveland team, Cuyahoga River, finished 4th and Don Maxfield from Morton Salt's Grand Saline, TX "Team Texas" earned 6th place.

Cody Rossbach, Cargill Deicing Technology's Cayuga mine (Lansing, NY), garnered third place in the BG-4 Benchman competition.

And Cargill's Avery Island, LA mine "Rescue Runners" first aid team of Ward Broussard, Marty Menard and Lynn Bayard placed 5th in their competition.

See our earlier post for salt inductees into the Mine Rescue Hall of Fame.

In related news, MSHA announced seven inductees into the Mine Rescue All of Fame including three from salt companies, Rod Etie and Rayward Segura of Cargill's Avery Island, LA mine, and Lee Graham who retired from then-SI member Carey Salt in 1988. Segura was a participant in the inaugural competition in 1971 when the contest was conducted in Lafayette, LA. Congratulations.

So it makes perfect sense that Louisiana salt miners take seriously efforts by mine managers to maintain readiness for mine disasters. Thus, the headline in yesterday's Daily Iberian (New Iberia, LA) was eye-catching, but unsurprising: "Mine Stages Disaster." No, it wasn't an insurance scam. It was a full-scale drill by Cargill Salt's Avery Island mine. Drills like this are why salt mine rescue teams regularly dominate national competitions among various mine rescue units which compete annually, recognizing that competition heightens not only skills, but awareness.

The majority of fatal accidents have these common characteristics:

1) Failure to identify hazards, and 2) Failure to manage risks

The key root causes were:
 No Risk Assessment Conducted
 No/Inadequate Policy or Procedures
 Did not use Personal Protective Equipment
 Lack of Pre-operation Checks
 Equipment not Maintained
 Training Inadequate
 Failure to Conduct Examinations

Let’s use this information to guide our way to making 2007 an even safer year!

Biodiesel is being used in some rock salt mines to minimize diesel particulate to meet new MSHA regulations. Fortunately, underground operating conditions are immune to the challenges of surface winter weather.

So it remains to be seen whether soybean producers will have this expanded market -- and for us consumers, whether biodiesel competition will do for our tofu prices what ethanol did to increase corn demand and hike beef prices.

Mine rescue competitions are designed to test the knowledge of rescue teams who might be called upon to rescue their colleagues trapped following real mine emergencies. Teams must solve a hypothetical mine emergency problem, such as a fire, explosion or cave-in, and are judged on accuracy and speed.

With 480 total days lost out of more than 11 million hours worked, 2005 was the safest year in the history of the Salt Institute's safety program - all the way back to 1968. Since steady progress has been recorded since then, it is safe to assume 2005 was the all-time safest year in history. Salt workers suffered 22 lost time injuries last year, seven fewer than in 2004 -- an improvement of 24.14%.

This dramatic improvement stands in stark contrast with recent mine safety failures that have MSHA scrambling to defend its safety promotion efforts.

Overall, three companies won top honors for their corporate safety records. Among large salt compaies, Morton Salt (Chicago, IL) had the best safety record regarding incidence of injuries and Sifto Salt (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) had the industry's best record regarding injury severity. Among smaller salt companies, Lyons Salt (Lyons, KS) had the best record in both categories.

Individual facilities were recognized as well. Best incidence records were achieved by Cargill Salt's St. Clair, MI evaporated salt plant, Morton Salt's Fairport, OH mine and North American Salt (Compass Minerals) Ogden, UT solar saltworks. Regarding severity, the industry standard was set by Morton Salt's Rittman, OH salt refinery (owner of the industry's historic best safety record: 6 million consecutive safe work-hours), Sifto Salt's Goderich, Ontario mine and Cargill Salt's Akron, OH salt refinery. Morton Salt was honored for its industry-best terminals and warehouses.