Recommendations for Controlling Back Injuries in the U.S. Mining Industry

Details

• Personal Author:
  Gallagher S ; Hamrick, Christopher A.
• Description:
  It is estimated that approximately 25 percent of all injuries in the mining industry involve trauma to the back. The cost of back injuries in U.S. coal mining alone exceeds $20 million a year. Unfortunately, the underground coal mining environment presents some uncommon barriers to preventing back injuries. For example, the restricted roof height of many low-seam coal mines (seams less than or equal to 1.2 m} forces workers to adopt stressful working postures during manual lifting activities. The traditional approach to reducing back injuries has been to train miners to cope with the existing conditions; unfortunately, the effectiveness of this method has been limited. Thus new approaches are needed. This paper describes methods recommended by the U.S. Bureau of Mines to reduce back injury risk through ergonomic redesign of hazardous materials-handling tasks. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Ergonomics Mining Musculoskeletal Diseases Musculoskeletal System Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Back Injuries Coal Mining Humans Injuries Manual Lifting Manual Materials Handling Mining Industry Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Posture Repetitive-work Stress Task-performance Underground Miners Underground Mining

  More +
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• ISBN:
  9780969854412
• Publisher:
  Human Factors Association of Canada
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PRC - Pittsburgh Research Center
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20048564
• Citation:
  IEA '94, proceedings of the 12th Triennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association, August 15-19, 1994, Toronto, Canada, Volume 2: Ergonomics in Occupational Health and Safety. Mississauga, Ontario, Canada: Human Factors Association of Canada, 1994 Aug; 2:435
• Contact Point Address:
  U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, P.O. Box 18070, Cochrans Mill Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15236-0070
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1994
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  IEA '94, proceedings of the 12th Triennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association, August 15-19, 1994, Toronto, Canada, Volume 2: Ergonomics in Occupational Health and Safety
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f7a33cdc5443375ce7768f4b4b9a4300651b73a7b60b1e76e2e9d0d54ca38bf2a3fe4f853076f279c0fac02e4afba69173e7d7ce561f6b6ee711648eac48f384
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/228288/cdc_228288_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.35 MB ]