Regulatory Governance and Risk Management: Occupational Health and Safety in the Coal Mining Industry [Mining Engineering]

Regulatory Governance and Risk Management: Occupational Health and Safety in the Coal Mining Industry 2011, by BingTui Yang, published by Routledge, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, hardbound, 196 pp., SME, 12999 E. Adam Aircraft Cir., Englewood, CO 80112 USA, 303-948-4225, www.smenet.org/store, $115 nonmember, $105 member/student member.

Regulatory Governance ? Risk Management: Occupational Health and Safety in the Coal Mining Industry is the first book that addresses the diffusion of risk-based governance in the coal mining industry from a health and safety standpoint. Since the 1990s, the approach of risk-based governance has been adopted in most developed countries It has diffused much more slowly in the United States. Using comparisons between Australia and the United States, this book examines mechanisms that drive and prevent the diffusion of risk-based governance in the coal-mining industry.

Tnis is a timely work, in the light of the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion in April 2010. After this disaster, many asked why an enhanced level of enforcement has not prevented catastrophic accidents from occurring and why risk-based governance, which helps other countries achieve better safety performance, has not been practiced in the United States. The book answers these questions and makes recommendations on how to remove barriers in moving toward risk-based governance. The book also embeds theories into storytelling and gives particular emphasis on the influence of key strategic individuals.