Eric Lutz

Background

About Eric Lutz

I am passionate about miners rights to a healthy and safe working environment (my great grandfather was a coal miner in Germany who died of black lung disease and my grandfather suffered most of his adult life from the effects of overexposure to ammonia gas from working as a "refrigeration man" in commercial dairies. I have extensive experience innovating and implementing best practices in critical risk controls, health and safety improvements, miner self-escape and rescue performance in coal, metal, industrial mineral, and aggregate mines. I spend a lot of time in surface and underground mines, talking with miners about their greatest challenges and working with management to implement best practices. My experiences as a card-carrying union member (Teamsters, AFL-CIO), laborer, technician, enlisted sailor, Air Force officer, and entrepreneur are foundational to how I work with people. I understand the value, roles, and complex inter-relationship of the dedicated women and men working across the country as miners, of MSHA, organized labor, mining companies, legislators, NGOs, academia, and other federal agencies. I am expert in industrial hygiene, safety leadership, using behavior change to optimize organizational culture, and mitigating risk in operational environments. My work developing and teaching the only existing Certified Mine Safety Professional Review Course has been tremendously impactful to improving mining health and safety competence and improving the overall industry. I am knowledgeable in U.S. mining health and safety law – co-designing and teaching the Mining Health and Safety Law course at the James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona (UAz). I have also taught UAz undergraduates, graduate students, and working professionals in safety-focused leadership, Mining Heath and Safety, Miner Health, Mine Disasters and Emergency Response, and courses covering historic-through-contemporary reviews of MSHA, OSHA, and the EPA. I am working directly with the mine community to improve and optimize the health and safety of our Nation's miners!