Injuries Associated with Long Working Hours Among Employees in the US Mining Industry: Risk Factors and Adverse Outcomes

Details

• Personal Author:
  Almberg KS ; Cohen RA ; Friedman LS
• Description:
  Objectives: The mining industry is increasingly adopting extended workdays of 10-12 hour shifts. Studies demonstrate that long work hours are associated with psychomotor impairments caused by fatigue and an increased risk of injury. However, studies involving miners remain limited. This analysis aimed to identify risk factors associated with long working hour injuries and to determine if long working hour incidents were associated with being killed or incidents involving multiple injured workers. Methods: Data from US Mine Safety and Health Administration Part 50 reports, 1983-2015, were used to identify long working hour injuries, which were defined as incidents occurring nine or more hours after the start of a shift. Results: A total of 52 206 injuries (9.6%) occurred during long working hours. The proportion of long working hour injuries increased from 5.5% of all injuries in 1983 to its peak in 2015 at 13.9% (p<0.001). Risk factors associated with long working hour injuries included irregular shift starts, being newly employed, employment by a contractor, metal/non-metal operations and mines with <100 employees. In two separate adjusted models, long working hour injuries were associated with a higher odds of death (adjusted OR [aOR]=1.32; 95% CI 1.18 to 1.48) and single incidents resulting in two or more workers injured (aOR=1.73; 95% CI 1.58 to 1.89). Conclusions: Long working hour injuries were associated with a lack of routine, being new at the mine and specific mining activities. An international shift towards using contract labour and extended workdays indicates that injuries during long working hours will likely continue to grow as a problem in the mining industry. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Fatigue Mining Morbidity Mortality Occupational Health Safety Shift Work Schedule Workplace
• Keywords:
  Fatalities Injuries Miners Mine Workers Mining Industry Models Morbidity Rates Mortality Rates Psychomotor Function Shift Work Shift Workers Work Environment Workers

  More +
• ISSN:
  1351-0711
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Illinois ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  389-395
• Volume:
  76
• Issue:
  6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20055526
• Citation:
  Occup Environ Med 2019 Jun; 76(6):389-395
• Contact Point Address:
  Dr Lee S Friedman, School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, USA
• Email:
  lfried1@uic.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• Performing Organization:
  University of Illinois at Chicago
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20150701
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a129be2ecbbefe6f27e808525c32199ded9c1334ff6d0f462cd7e422d3b10f3614935e0e10d57fd53bdcb95d314b418d83428821343301c338f0dbdf06531b50
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/213361/cdc_213361_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 399.96 KB ]