H. B. 2273
(By Delegate Caputo) (By Request)
[Introduced January 12, 2011
; referred to the
Committee on Energy, Industry and Labor, Economic
Development and Small Business then the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §22A-10-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to requiring paramedics to be on
site at coal mines.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §22A-10-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 10. EMERGENCY MEDICAL PERSONNEL.
§22A-10-1. Emergency personnel in coal mines.
(a) Emergency medical services personnel and paramedics must
be employed on each shift at every mine that:
(1) Employs more than ten employees; and
(2) Has more than eight persons present on the shift.
The emergency medical services personnel must be employed at
their regular duties at a central location or, when more than one
person is required pursuant to the provisions of subsection (b) of this section, at a location which provides for convenient, quick
response to emergency. The emergency medical services personnel
must have available to them at all times such equipment prescribed
by the Director of the Office of Miners' Health, Safety and
Training, in consultation with the Commissioner of the Bureau of
Public Health.
(b) After the first day of July, two thousand, Emergency
medical services personnel means any person certified by the
Commissioner of the Bureau of for Public Health or authorities
recognized and approved by the commissioner to provide emergency
medical services as authorized in article four-c, chapter sixteen
of this code and including emergency medical technician-mining.
Paramedic means any person certified as an emergency medical
technician-paramedic by the Commissioner for the Bureau for Public
Health. At least one emergency medical services personnel and one
paramedic shall be employed at a mine for every fifty employees or
any part thereof who are engaged at any time, in the extraction,
production or preparation of coal.
(c) A training course designed specifically for certification
of emergency medical technician-mining, shall be developed at the
earliest practicable time by the Commissioner of the Bureau of for
Public Health in consultation with the board of Miner Training,
Education and Certification. The training course for initial
certification as an emergency medical technician-mining shall may not be less than sixty hours, which shall include, but is not
limited to, basic life support skills and emergency room
observation or other equivalent practical exposure to emergencies
as prescribed by the Commissioner of the Bureau of for Public
Health.
(d) The maintenance of a valid emergency medical technician-
mining certificate may be accomplished without taking a three-year
recertification examination: Provided, That the emergency medical
technician-mining personnel completes an eight-hour annual
retraining and testing program prescribed by the Commissioner of
the Bureau of for Public Health in consultation with the board of
Miner Training, Education and Certification.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require paramedics to be
on site at coal mines.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.