Averting Mining Hazards Using Emerging Technologies

Details

• Personal Author:
  Reyes MA
• Description:
  Injuries suffered during machine maintenance and repair tasks continue to plague the mining industry. From 2003 to 2012, these types of accidents accounted for the highest number of recordable incidents in stone, sand and gravel operations. The severity of these injuries can vary widely and range from cuts and broken bones to permanent disabilities and fatalities. The most severe cases often involve entanglements where workers are caught in a machine's pinch points when they attempt to perform maintenance-related tasks while the equipment is running or energized. A review of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration's mining injury statistics reveals cases in which equipment was not properly de-energized prior to machine guards being removed. This practice creates a particularly dangerous situation in which entanglements and other types of traumatic injuries can occur. Other cases involved maintenance personnel removing guards for a routine task and forgetting to replace them after the task was completed, only to have another mine worker get injured due to improperly guarded equipment. A more serious type of entanglement accident is when a worker is very close to or on unguarded equipment that has been properly de-energized for maintenance and another worker restarts the equipment unaware that someone is in harm's way. Over the years, the mining industry has taken positive strides to solve these types of problems and has developed programs to train employees to follow established procedures for locking out and tagging out equipment prior to maintenance and properly removing and replacing machine guards to reduce the entanglement hazards. However, these problems still occur at alarming rates. Researchers at the Office of Mine Safety and Health research (OMSHR) are investigating a technology-based solution designed to provide additional layers of protection against these types of accidents. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Engineering Maintenance Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Mining Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident Analysis Accident Prevention Control Technology Emerging Technology Engineering Controls Injuries Injury Prevention Machine Guarding Machine Operation Machine Operators Machinery Maintenance Workers Mining Engineering Mining Industry Sand And Gravel Mines Traumatic Injuries

  More +
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• ISSN:
  8750-9210
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OMSHR - Office of Mine Safety and Health Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  21-23
• Volume:
  30
• Issue:
  6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20056265
• Citation:
  Stone, Sand Gravel Rev 2014 Nov/Dec; 30(6):21-23
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Stone, Sand & Gravel Review
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c57f5b69b12982ee5fb62be041a56452d3a56f5a4013bd26baec13a286f3908836c386c825f0afc454cff6a6af161acf468e02cf0c4eb5fea630aaf49af99f29
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/227884/cdc_227884_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.26 MB ]