Mine Safety Associates LLC
PO Box 872
Price, UT 84501
USA
Phone: (435) 637-6477
Fax: (435) 637-8614
E-mail: sales@minesafetyassoc.com
History
Leland, as a young assistant safety director, 48 years and 50 pounds ago!
Mine Safety Associates was founded in February 1978 in Price, Utah by Leland Gotfredson. Leland was the safety director for the U.S. Fuel Company at its coal mines in Hiawatha, Utah. He had worked in the coal industry for almost eight years -- four years as an underground coal miner and four years in management. Leland held fire-boss, mine foreman and electrician papers.
The 1977 Act had just gone into effect, so after publishing a newsletter called the Mine Safety Digest for four months, Leland quit his job and tried his hand at consulting. "I thought that the metal and nonmetal mines would want to know what I had learned in the mines under the 1969 Coal Mine Safety Act," Leland says. While consulting is now a good business, back then people weren't interested. The metal and nonmetal industry didn't think that MSHA was going to be any different than MESA (the agency that preceded MSHA.) "They said that MSHA wouldn't issue any citations or assess any penalties. I told them that the coal companies had thought the same thing and now some of them were out of business," he remembers.
Leland with gear which he wore and used as an underground coal miner.
In 1979 Leland came up with the idea of the pocket editions of the 30 CFR. He says, "Some people say that 'Necessity is the mother of invention.' But in this case it was, 'Starvation is the mother of invention.' " With over 1,000,000 copies sold, the pocket editions have become the industry "Bible."
In 2012 Mine Safety Associates began producing electronic books. "Some day people are going to want the regulations on their cell phone," Leland thought, "and if someone is going to take a paper book sale from me with an electronic book, it might as well be me." So Leland, who hadn't used any type of mobile device, set out to make an ebook. He bought an iPod Touch and an Android tablet and began to design the best electronic book in the industry. Like their pocket editions, Mine Safety Associates' ebooks have become the industry's "eBible."
The passing of the baton (book).
On July 1, 2022, the company was acquired by Tiffany Behunin, Leland’s daughter, who has been a part of the business almost all her life. "With the new ownership our name will be changing to Mine Safety Associates LLC. Other than that, there will not be any major changes to the service and quality that you have come to expect. I hope we can continue to work together in making our miners safe," Tiffany.