A Review of Underground Coal Mine Emergency Communications and Tracking System Installations

Details

• Personal Author:
  Damiano, Nicholas W. ; Homce, Gerald T. ; Jacksha R
• Description:
  The 2006 Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006 (MINER Act) required all underground coal mines in the U.S. to have a plan to provide post-accident communication and electronic tracking for any mine workers trapped underground. In response, post-accident communications and electronic tracking (emergency CT) technologies designed to meet MINER Act requirements have been developed by various manufacturers and approved for permissibility by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), meaning they may be used safely in coal mines that may have gassy or dust-laden atmospheres. As a result, more than a dozen different emergency CT systems have become available for U.S. underground coal mining. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently conducted a review of the latest MSHA-approved Emergency Response Plans (ERPs) for each active underground coal mine on file as of February 2014 to identify and characterize the types of emergency CT systems installed. This review pertains only to CT systems installed underground for emergency purposes, and does not include any CT systems installed or used for non-emergency situations, such as communications for everyday operations. This review showed there are 13 manufacturers of post-accident communications systems currently used in U.S. underground coal mines; five produce leaky feeder systems, four make wired node-based systems, and four supply wireless node-based systems. A total of 12 manufacturers supply electronic personnel tracking systems used in U.S. underground coal mines. Five manufacturers use tracking tags in conjunction with a leaky feeder communication infrastructure, and three use either tracking-capable handsets or tags as part of a wired node- based system. The remaining four systems provide tracking through an integrated wireless node-based communications system using either tags or handsets with tracking capability. Eight years after passage of the MINER Act, post-accident CT in U.S underground coal mines has evolved to a point where a number of systems based on a variety of CT approaches and technologies are available to mine operators. These advances are expected to greatly enhance miner safety, and it is reasonable to expect that emergency CT systems will continue to change and improve as the underlying technology improves, and as manufacturers adapt their systems to better serve the needs of the mining industry. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Automobiles Fatigue Mining Occupational Health Risk Assessment Safety
• Keywords:
  Coal-miners Coal-mining Communication-systems Electronic-equipment Emergency-equipment Emergency-response Environmental-technology Equipment-design Equipment-reliability Mine-rescue Mine-workers Miners Mining-industry Regulations Underground-mining Warning-systems

  More +
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• ISSN:
  1091-0646
• 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:
  34-35
• Volume:
  119
• Issue:
  11
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20045702
• Citation:
  Coal Age 2014 Nov; 119(11):34-35
• Contact Point Address:
  Nicholas Damiano, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Office of Mine Safety and Health Research
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Coal Age
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ff1c90cbe0412b95455cb060aa31c2289660b00f46d72b215ef150a73995b6f21cc17d4c61796188b48ec4d58cd154fde6d9dc0fce8ecf6f4bf2dcbaea873a79
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/228109/cdc_228109_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.31 MB ]