
1 
These Regulations may be cited as the Mines (Substances Hazardous to Health) Regulations 1996 and shall come into force on 29th September 1996.
2 
Regulation 4 of the Coal Mines (Respirable Dust) Regulations 1975 shall be amended by the revocation of the words “at which the total number of persons employed below ground exceeds 30”.
3 
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1994 shall be amended as follows—
(a) in regulation 2, after the definition for “micro-organism”, there shall be inserted the following definition—“
 “mine” has the meaning assigned to it by section 180 of the Mines and Quarries Act 1954;”;
(b) for sub-paragraph (1)(d) of regulation 5, there shall be substituted the following sub-paragraph—“
(d) where the substance hazardous to health is an inhalable dust which is below ground in any mine of coal.”.
4 
In section 74 of the Mines and Quarries Act 1954 there shall be inserted before the words “dust of such character and in such quantity as to be likely to be injurious to the persons employed”(in both places where it appears) the words “in the case of a mine of coal,”.
Signed by authority of the Secretary of State
Paul Beresford
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State,
Department of the Environment
29th July 1996