Panel Discussion – Illumination

Details

• Personal Author:
  Beckett G ; Bockosh GR ; Evans G ; Klouse K ; Slone RE ; Vines R
• Description:
  The Congress of the United States recognized the establishment of minimum illumination standards for coal mining under Section 101 of the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. Congress based its decision on many experiments conducted in underground coal mine lighting from about 1885 until that time. Most illumination experiments conducted up until 1950 involved the perfection of the miners' electric cap lamp. Between 1950 and the present, most of the experiments involved area lighting and machine-mounted lighting. After evaluation of underground illumination tests, accident reports, research contracts, and comments from industry, United Mine Workers, and operators, standards were published on minimum illumination required in underground coal mines. Specific areas of high accident rates, such as a coal mine face while operating mining equipment, and the minimum levels of illumination based on test studies of light levels required to perform specific jobs, and minimum reflector values for paints based on visibility studies, are points covered by the regulations. Other countries have had illumination laws for many years for underground coal mining. Great Britain has the Coal Mine Lighting Regulations of 1947. It requires certain parts of underground coal mines be supplied with sufficient general lighting. The U.S.S.R. has states standards specifications in 1963. This led to the development of the fluorescent lamps. Some of the other countries that have had underground illumination standards are Italy, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Belgium. These were all well into the early 60' s. Since 1938 numerous papers have been printed on illumination in underground coal mines in the United States. At the 1950 meeting of the Coal Mine Lighting Clinic, which included representatives of industry, the United Mine Workers, and state and federal agencies, one of the conclusions reached was that improving seeing conditions at the face was the most crucial problem. The Mining Development Committee of the Bituminous Coal Research Incorporated has been conducting tests since 1953 in underground illumination. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Lighting Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Mining Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Coal-miners Coal-mining Equipment-design Equipment-reliability Illumination Light-emission Light-source Lighting-systems Machine-operation Mine-workers Miners Mining-equipment Mining-industry Monitoring-systems Underground-miners Underground-mining

  More +
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Publisher:
  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; New Jersey ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania ; Virginia ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PRC - Pittsburgh Research Center
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  137-172
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20030937
• Citation:
  Proceedings of the 8th Annual Institute on Coal Mining Health, Safety and Research, Blacksburg, Virginia, August 30 - September 1, 1977. Foreman WE, ed. Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1977 Sep; :137-172
• Editor(s):
  Foreman WE
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1977
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Proceedings of the 8th Annual Institute on Coal Mining Health, Safety and Research, Blacksburg, Virginia, August 30 - September 1, 1977
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:836b08ad908b0fd4c92945ee777c64d96a051674fdb13e66668ed3eef323ccdde4c6bb2c17f638e6270c8571968021c404551ffacdfc088b1c7d0c60f3b12b5c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/226651/cdc_226651_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 6.54 MB ]