MSA History

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1. The History of MSA
2. MSA's Official Year of Establishment
3. MSA's Major Divisons
4. The MSA Product Line
5. Gas Detection and Control Instruments
6. Fall Protection Safety Gear
7. Head Protection Safety Gear

The History of MSA

Workplace safety is the top most priority for workers as well as employers in recent era. However during older times money used to overcome the fear and potential hazards associated with professions like fire fighting, construction and mining. Although mining is a rewarding yet dangerous profession and mine workers need constant and uncompromised safety gear and methods to keep them selves secure from disabilities and death. In the late nineteenth century the fatality rates among mine workers were seen on high rise. The following table provides a glimpse about the fatality rate in mine workers in the nineteenth century.

British and American Mine Safety, 1890 -1904
*Fatality rates per Thousand Workers per Year

Years	American Anthracite	American Bituminous	Great Britain
1890-1894	3.29	2.52	1.61
1900-1904	3.13	3.53	1.28

(Extracted from History of workplace safety in US)

Almost a century ago two rescue engineers John T. Ryan and George H. Deike, (MSA Mine Safety Appliances Company) employed at the bureau of mines noticed a dire need to establish a facility that can manufacture and provide protective equipments and paraphernalia to ensure safety to the laborers working in fields like mining, fire fighting and construction. They convinced Thomas Edison, the famous scientist and inventor of light bulb, to work on developing a flame free electric cap lamp to be used by the mine workers. The previous open flame lamps were a source of catastrophic mine explosions that resulted in deaths of hundreds of miners. (MSA Europe) the company that started from a small office as a mine safety appliances manufacturing company in the early twentieth century in Pittsburg gradually became the world leader in occupational safety products' producer as the hazard threats during the Second World War increased and is serving diverse fields now. MSA is designing and making valuable household safety appliances too. (Ryan, 2006)

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MSA's Official Year of Establishment

The Mines Safety Appliances (MSA) Company of North America was established in the year 1914 and has its headquarters located in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The MSA is serving in the fields of oil and gas development, fire fighting, mining, construction, law enforcement and general industry, hazmat responding units and military for all those past years (MSA Europe). It is committed to design, manufacture and supply safety equipment like eye, face, hearing and head protection gear such as gas masks, protective goggles, ear muffs, face shields, hard hats, escape hoods and helmets, whole body protection products like fall protectors and ballistic armors, respiratory protection equipments like self contained breathing apparatus and filtering respirators, Air-Purifying Respirators, Supplied-Air Respirators and Portable and Permanent Gas Detection Instruments (MSA north America) and hazard control equipment like gas and fire detectors, open-path infrared gas detectors and thermal imaging cameras (Ryan, 2006) and Mining and Specialty Products (MSA North America)

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MSA's Major Divisions

MSA has three major division namely MSA north America, MSA Europe and MSA international and there are around 30 branch offices that are spread world wide and serve almost 80% of the countries without discrimination. The mission of the company is "That men and women may work in safety, and they, their families, and their communities, may live in health throughout the world." (Ryan, 2006)

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The MSA Product Line

The MSA products are often referred as sophisticated safety equipment range (MSA north America) because they serve as major life saving appliances used by workers who put their lives in the line of their duties such as fire fighters, hazmat workers and miners. The product line is extensive and a full catalog is available online at the MSA website with latest models and up coming products details but the minutiae of the most commonly used safety equipments is given in the lines below.

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Gas Detection and Control Instruments

There are two major types of gas detection equipment available e.g. Fixed gas detection apparatus and Portable gas detection appliances.

Fixed or permanent gas detection instruments include:

• Gas sensors and transmitters like Ultima X series Gas Monitors and Flamegard
• Controllers such as SafeTox and SafeVoc, Suprema and Gasgard
• HVAC monitors like Chillgard Monitors and Z- Gard Gas Detectors
• Industrial analyzers
• Calibration kits to confirm and check the gas detection functions performed by MSA gas monitors and detectors.
• Custom products such as electrochemical, catalytic bead, solid state and both photo acoustic and non-dispersive infrared (IR) technologies that are utilized for the detection of combustible and toxic gases as well as oxygen levels

Portable range of gas detecting instruments includes:

• Multi gas instruments like Sirius multi gas detector, Orion plus IR
• Single gas combustibles e.g. AL TAIR PRO
• Photo ionization instruments like AUER PID
• Detector tubes and sampling pumps such as DigiCal calibrator, 42 CFR oil - mist sampling kits, gas detector II H and indoor air quality test kit
• Intelligent testing and calibration automated systems, kits and accessories
• CBRN detection instruments like SAW mini cad, HAZMAT CAD

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Fall Protection Safety Gear

These are safety paraphernalia used by utility and maintenance workers to circumvent and reduce accidents resulting from falling from height and avoids disability and fatality. There is an extensive range of fall protection items available at MSA site and a few are Arc Safe Harness, Gravity Tower Harness, Harness accessories, body belts, anchorage connectors, energy absorbing, self protecting and restraint lanyards, suspension trauma safety step, Man Safe free standing constant force post, confined space equipment, descent products, horizontal and vertical lifelines and ladder climbing equipment and fall protection kits.

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Head Protection Safety Gear

The skull guards and hard hats produced by the MSA are specifically designed to meet the requirements of laborers working in mining, construction, chemical and electrical utilities, nuclear facilitates, oil and gas fields and various other industries where protection is required from electrical shock and over head falling objects. The hard hats are designed in such a way that they can be used with or without face shields, hearing protection systems like ear muffs and eye protection equipment to provide enhanced protection. These hats and skull guards are made of durable and light weight material and are absolute non conductors of electricity.

A wide variety of hard hats are available but the most popular ones in market are V-Gard and Topgard protective caps, Vanguard II lateral protective helmet, vented and non vented Advance caps, Skullgard protective head wear, plastic bump cap, Wildland fire fighters helmets and accessories, Thermalgard helmets, caps and hats, sports logo helmets and head protection accessories like chin straps, winter liners, sun shields and helmet mounted flash lights.

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