Workshop safety: maintenance of mining equipment is dangerous--take care.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Nelson BC ; Smith, Thomas J.
• Description:
  Tasks required for repairing mining equipment differ significantly from those required for most other mining work, especially in technical complexity and variety. For example, operation of mining equipment tends to be repetitive and routine, but maintaining that equipment is varied, complex and often urgent. Maintenance may be necessary in the field, forcing repair crews into awkward, cold, wet, dark, cramped, or dusty conditions. The nonroutine nature of mine-maintenance work means that each repair task presents unique characteristics and complexities. The challenges of mine maintenance can be characterized as human-factors difficulties. Improvement of both the safety and efficiency of maintenance represents a large, potential cost-saving. Maintenance typically accounts for a major percentage of mining costs; estimates vary from 30 to 50 percent of total operating costs. The U.S. Bureau of Mines has conducted safety research on human-factors difficulties related to surface-mine maintenance since 1985. This research indicates that more than one-third of all surface-mining accidents occur during equipment maintenance, and that overexertion and slip-and-fall injuries are responsible for 64 percent of all the injury lost time due to maintenance. Estimates of maintenance accident costs range from $12,000 to $14,000 per accident. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Maintenance Mining Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Mining-equipment; Repair-shops; Maintenance-workers; Technical-personnel; Mining-industry; Safety-research; Surface-mining; Lost-work-days; Injuries; Injury-prevention; Accident-prevention; Accidents; Accident-statistics; Human-factors-engineering
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• ISSN:
  0095-8948
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Minnesota ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  TCRC - Twin Cities Research Center
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  24-26
• Volume:
  192
• Issue:
  12
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:10011310
• Citation:
  Eng Min J 1991 Dec; 192(12):24-26
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1992
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Engineering and Mining Journal
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7dc847c09aedf140bc731323e8446b4703641ae07d6ad9e7b7238120dab30b8f7dcaa9b938d34d035f87873a0fe7fec262d5d13dcaf290925445e82b6de3b57d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/238490/cdc_238490_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 168.02 KB ]