• The Miners Safety Health Administration (MSHA) is a federal agency that is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the safety of miners. The basic aim of MSHA regulations relates to reducing fatalities of mine workers. Ventilation materials play a major role in helping prevent the occurrence of disasters. When setting forth regulations, the MSHA considers the types of ventilation materials or controls, such as sealants, the strength of the ventilation materials and their non-combustibility.
  
  

Sealant Requirements

• The MSHA requires that the sealant used to construct ventilation materials have a surface flame spread index of fewer than 25. This ensures that if this material catches fire, it is easy to extinguish before it spreads and causes damage. Sealant also must be applied on a width of not less than a 1/4-inch on the walls, floor and ceiling of the site of excavation. Before the sealant is applied, tests on these parameters must be conducted on at least four locations in the mine.
  
  

Other Ventilation Materials

• The same rules apply to materials that may be used in the site. All materials used to ventilate the space must be made of a noncombustible material with a thickness of not more than an inch. Tests must be done on four different specimens of the construction material used for ventilation before these materials are applied at any location of the site, such as the walls, floor or roof.
  
  

Strength and Non-Combustibility

• Three specimens of any ventilation materials also have to be tested for strength in order to ensure they meet criteria as set out under regulations relating to "transverse loading of a vertical specimen." Regulations about non-combustibility also take factors such as combustibility of oxygen with the temperatures inside the mine into consideration. The minimum cross-sectional area of the test material that is exposed to heat should be 35 squared feet, and a height and length of 3 feet and 6 feet, respectively, must be exposed. Even a slight increase in the levels of oxygen can mix with methane, which will make the latter hazardous. Managing the atmosphere in such a manner as to prevent the mixture of explosive materials is a major rationale for regulations on ventilation.