OBJECTIVE: This study summarized the frequency and cost of mining-related injuries. METHODS: Mining-related workers' compensation (WC) claims data from 35 states were summarized to report counts, claim rates, and costs for 2012-2019. These data were compared with Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) injury and employment data for the same period. RESULTS: Despite system differences, both WC and MSHA counts and rates declined over time and injury patterns were similar. Total WC costs were ~ $2.325B. Medical-only claims represented 59.4% of the claims by count, but only 3.3% of costs. Lost-time non-fatal claims represented 40.2% of the claims by count, but 90.2% of costs. Claims frequency and costs varied greatly by injury event/exposure, part of body, and nature. CONCLUSIONS: Injury frequency has declined but costs remain high. The most costly and disabling cases were identified.

Injuries associated with hands and fingers are highly prevalent in mining and identifying factors associated with these injuries are critical in developing prevention efforts. This study identifies nonfatal injury incidence rates, nature of injury, work activities, glove usage, and sources of hand and finger injuries in the U.S. mining industry, as reported to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) from 2011 - 2017. Hand and finger injuries occur at a rate of 6.53 per 1000 full-time employees, which is nearly double the rate of the next highest affected body part, the back. Most of the hand and finger injuries were classified as cuts/lacerations/punctures (53%) followed by bone fractures/chips (26%). Materials handling and maintenance/repair were common activities at the time of the incident with miscellaneous metals (pipe, wire, guarding) and hand tools as the primary sources of hand and finger injury. Although the information on glove use was limited, leather gloves were most often worn when an injury occurred. When worn, gloves were found to contribute to 20% of the injuries, indicating their potential to protect the hands, but also potentially put the hands at risk. Further research is necessary to determine performance requirements for gloves used in mining operations, specifically those offering cut and puncture resistance. © 2022, This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply.

The "Safety Pays in Mining" web application, developed by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Mining Program, helps mines determine the potential costs associated with mining injuries. This web app groups injuries by type, either by the cause of the injury or by the nature of the injury. When the user selects one of more than 30 common types of mining injuries, the app provides information on the distribution of costs of workers' compensation claims for that type of injury. Based on other user inputs, the app will estimate the total costs of the selected injuries, including an estimate of additional indirect costs, the estimated impact of total injury costs on mining company profits, and provide some examples of other items, such as services or equipment, on which companies could spend the savings that result from the prevention of injuries. This paper reviews the app by discussing its development, how it is used to show the true costs of mining injuries, and how mines can benefit from using it.

The development and testing of ergonomics and safety audits for small and bulk bag filling, haul truck, and maintenance and repair operations in coal preparation and mineral processing plants found at surface mine sites is described. The content for the audits was derived from diverse sources of information on ergonomics and safety deficiencies including: analysis of injury, illness, and fatality data and reports; task analysis; empirical laboratory studies of particular tasks; field studies and observations at mine sites; and maintenance records. These diverse sources of information were utilized to establish construct validity of the modular audits that were developed for use by mine safety personnel. User and inter-rater reliability testing was carried out prior to finalizing the audits. The audits can be implemented using downloadable paper versions or with a free mobile NIOSH-developed Android application called ErgoMine. Practitioner Summary The methodology used to develop ergonomics audits for three types of mining operations is described. Various sources of audit content are compared and contrasted to serve as a guide for developing ergonomics audits for other occupational contexts.

In a mine emergency where refuge is necessary, miners may sustain injuries that will render them unable to walk or crawl. In this situation, a miner may have to rely on others for transportation into the mobile refuge alternative (RA) while on a stretcher. Since requirements for mine first-aid stations were developed before RAs, stretchers should be evaluated to determine whether they are usable in an RA and within the physical capabilities of miners in a refuge. The size of the RA airlock is a concern, as it has not been determined if current airlocks will accommodate a miner on a stretcher. This study evaluated the time required to move three types of stretchers into two commercially available RAs. The splint stretcher had the longest average time to move into each RA as compared to the backboard and soft stretcher. This increase was mostly due to the increased time requirements for getting the splint stretcher into the airlock. For all stretchers, it took approximately two to three times longer to enter the inflatable tent-type RA compared to the rigid steel RA. Mining companies should consider how well their current first-aid implements work with their RAs and manufacturers of inflatable RAs should maximize the size of the outer doors leading into the airlock to allow an easier entry for stretchers.

Several tools are sold and recommended for closing and sealing flexible intermediate bulk containers (bulk bags) which are used to transport product that has been mined and processed. However, there is limited information on the risks, physical demands, or the benefits of using one tool over another. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the physical demands involved with two closing methods and several sealing tools in order to provide recommendations for selecting tools to reduce exposure to risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders. In this study, twelve participants completed bag closing and sealing tasks using two different closing methods and eight sealing tools on two types of bulk bags. Physical demands and performance were evaluated using muscle activity, perceived exertion, subjective ratings of use, and time. Results indicate that using the "flowering" method to close bags required on average 32% less muscle activity, 30% less perceived exertion, 42% less time, and was preferred by participants compared to using the "snaking" method. For sealing, there was no single method significantly better across all measures; however, using a pneumatic cable tie gun consistently had the lowest muscle activity and perceived exertion ratings. The pneumatic cable tie gun did require approximately 33% more time to seal the bag compared to methods without a tool, but the amount of time to seal the bag was comparable to using other tools. Further, sealing a spout bulk bag required on average 13% less muscle activity, 18% less perceived exertion, 35% less time, and was preferred by participants compared to sealing a duffle bulk bag. The current results suggest that closing the spout bag using the flowering method and sealing the bag using the pneumatic cable tie gun that is installed with a tool balancer is ergonomically advantageous. Our findings can help organizations select methods and tools that pose the lowest physical demands when closing and sealing bulk bags. © 2016.

BACKGROUND: No specific guidelines or regulations are provided by the Mine Safety and Health Administration for the use of inclined grated metal walkways in mining plants. Mining and other companies may be using walkway materials that do not provide sufficient friction, contributing to slip and fall injuries. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine if there are significant differences in the required friction for different grated metal walkways during walking in diverse conditions. METHODS: The normalized coefficients of friction were measured for 12 participants while walking up and down an instrumented walkway with different inclinations (0 degrees , 5 degrees , 10 degrees , 15 degrees , and 20 degrees ) and with and without the presence of a contaminant (glycerol). Self-reported slip events were recorded and the required coefficients of friction were calculated considering only the anterior/posterior components of the shear forces. Additionally, the available coefficients of friction for these walkway materials were measured at the 0 degrees orientation using a tribometer, with and without the presence of the contaminant, using a boot heel as well as Neolite as the test feet. RESULTS: The number of slips increased when the inclination angle reached 10 degrees and above. Of all materials tested, the diamond weave grating was found to have the best performance at all inclines and when contaminated or dry. A high number of slips occurred for the perforated grating and serrated bar grating at 20 degrees when contaminated. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study suggest that the diamond weave grating provides significantly better friction compared to serrated bar and perforated gratings, especially at inclines greater than 10 degrees .

During a mine disaster or emergency, underground air can quickly become contaminated. In these circumstances, all underground mine workers are taught to don breathable air supply units at the first sign of an emergency. However, no contemporary oxygen consumption data is available for the purposes of designing breathing air supply equipment specifically for mine escape. Further, it would be useful to quantify the oxygen requirements of breathing air supply users for various escape scenarios. To address this need, 14 participants crawled a distance of 305 m each while their breath-by-breath oxygen consumption measurements were taken. Using these data, linear regression models were developed to determine peak and average oxygen consumption rates as well as total oxygen consumption. These models can be used by manufacturers of breathing air supply equipment to aid in the design of devices that would be capable of producing sufficient on-demand oxygen to allow miners to perform self-escape.

Underground coal mine explosions, such as the January 2006 Sago mine disaster, have dramatically demonstrated the need to provide mine refuge alternatives for miners who are unable to exit the mine and are forced to take refuge during mine disasters or emergencies. | The Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act of 2006 requires that underground coal operators include refuge alternatives (RAs) in their Emergency Response Plans. Mines presently use three types of refuge alternatives: mobile steel, mobile inflatable tent and built-in-place (BIP). | Considering the importance of equipping RAs well for emergencies, this article reviews the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) regulations for food, water and waste disposal/sanitation in RAs. Information received from RA manufacturers is presented on food, water, and sanitation products and methods provided in their RAs. Issues that may arise from using these products are also discussed, along with possible solutions.

Many mining commodities are packaged and shipped using bags. Small bags are typically loaded onto pallets for transport and require a significant amount of manual handling by workers. This specific task of manual bag handling has been associated with the development of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), especially low back disorders. This study evaluates the biomechanical demands of different work layouts when performing manual palletizing of small bags, and evaluates the biomechanical stresses associated with different stacking techniques. Results indicate that peak forward bending moments as well as spinal compression and shear forces are higher when the pallet is situated at the side of the conveyor as opposed to the end of the conveyor. At low levels of the pallet, controlled bag placement results in higher peak forward bending moments than stacking at higher levels and when dropping the bag to lower levels. The results of this study will be used to inform the development of an audit tool for bagging operations in the mining industry. Relevance to industry: In many cases for workers loading small bags, compression forces exceed the NIOSH criterion of 3400N. Orientation of the pallet has a significant impact on spinal compression, and positioning the pallet at the end of the conveyor reduces the estimated compressive loading on the lumbar spine by approximately 800N.

BACKGROUND: Maintenance and repair work in mining is particularly hazardous and yet has received little focus in ergonomics research. PURPOSE: In this article, an attempt has been made to determine if patterns can be identified to categorize maintenance and repair fatalities in mining, to compare occurrence of fatalities between coal and metal/nonmetal sectors, and to use this information to identify safety deficiencies and associated proposed remedial measures. METHODS: A classification scheme was developed to identify patterns in fatalities, including proximal causes, tasks, and contributing factors. This scheme was tested to ensure adequacy of the categories, and fatalities were categorized using the scheme. All testing and categorization were done by two of the authors to ensure reliability of the coding scheme. RESULTS: Patterns were successfully identified to categorize the fatalities, and these patterns were different between coal and metal/nonmetal mines. Coal mines had a greater proportion of electrical-related fatalities, while more fatalities related to potential energy occurred at metal/nonmetal mines. Most of the fatalities were caused by the victim coming into contact with an object or machine or the victim falling from height, and they occurred most often while the victim was performing maintenance or repair on equipment, cleaning, or removing blockages. The most frequent factors contributing to these incidents were failure to properly de-energize or lock out/tag out equipment, violation of work procedures, missing or inadequate safety equipment, and failure to block equipment properly. CONCLUSIONS: The classification approach used was successful in identifying hazard patterns during maintenance and repair fatalities in mining. These patterns identify areas to focus attention when developing interventions to prevent the occurrence of future fatalities.