All mine sites have two things in common—workers and risks. Their workforce, the company’s biggest asset, need to be trained efficiently and effectively on hazards’, risks’ and incidents’ management. Mine site workers handle highstakes machinery and dangerous substances in high-risk settings. The success of risk procedures for a company depends on how well workers understand, accept, and implement these procedures. Without appropriate knowledge and specific tools workers are at high risk of impacting their safety and health, while also undoing corporate compliance measures implemented by management. To mitigate this, we need cost-effective and time-efficient tools. We need targeted, pertinent, specialised training.
This raises questions about what tools contractors need to do the job and how these tools can effectively and efficiently be created and delivered.
Questions to address:
What is the decision-making process undertaken to create a targeted, pertinent, specialised training program?
What is the problem?
Who is at risk?
What are the regulations?
Who is the target?
What are the methods of delivery and desirable frequency?
What locations?
What are the workers’ levels of literacy?
And most importantly, what decision-making processes help to answer these questions and get cut-through to the workers?
Larnie Mackay
Operations Scheduler, Anglo American-Moranbah North Mine
Anglo American has introduced Australia’s first certified, electronic tablet device for use in underground coal mines. The device provides real-time access to CITECT data for Hazard Awareness and system monitoring, as well as Anglo American’s latest Safety and Health Management processes and documentation.
Developed in collaboration with a tablet manufacturer, the device was developed and tested to achieve International Group 1 Certification together with Queensland Government’s SIMTARS safety in mines certification.
The underground tablet can be used as a portable video communication device (via Skype) to instantly access expert technical advice. Not only does this accelerate operational fault-finding, it also allows a live video link to paramedics in the case of an emergency.
The tablet allows real-time environmental monitoring; provides up-to-date equipment resetting requirements; displays risk-categorised Strata Defect locations pictorially on the Mine Plan; and allows short interval control on the actual plan.
The introduction of the tablet is a major step towards the removal of all underground paperwork and the electronic lodgement of statutory and production reports.
Assoc. Prof. John Schneider
Occupational Physician, James Cook University, Mackay Clinical Campus
Increasing awareness of workplace dust exposure due to media reporting of pneumoconioses such as “black lung” and silicosis, has resulted in increased health surveillance, radiological investigation and notification of possible work related lung disorders. The most common chronic lung condition associated with significant occupational dust exposure however, are not the pneumoconiosis.
Subsequent decisions associated with the workers continuing employment can pose problems in both human resource and occupational health supervision and management. The reporting of changes in pulmonary imaging do not necessarily need to result in departure from the industry. With comprehensive medical management including Pulmonary Rehabilitation if necessary, and coordinated Pulmonary Protection programs involving both the workplace and treating medical practitioner many workers can continue to work productively within the industry until retirement.</p .
The presentation will consider managing the health and workplace risks associated with continued employment of workers reported with positive health surveillance findings, including:-
Work Related Lung Disorders
Current dilemmas in employment management
Interpretation and significance of medical reports
Dr Rhiannon McBean,
Research Coordinator, The Wesley Dust Disease Research Centre
Coal Mine Dust Lung Disease (CMDLD) is a term for of all lung diseases caused by inhalation of coal mine dust. CMDLD includes pneumoconiosis; coal workers’ and mixed dust pneumoconiosis (CWP; MDP) and silicosis, as well as inflammatory-type diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). CMDLD was undetected in the Queensland coal industry from 1984 to 2015. We aimed to understand the spectrum and severity of disease in recently diagnosed CMDLD cases (n= 79) by reviewing medical imaging, charts, lung function and occupational history.
CMDLD pneumoconioses were diagnosed in 71% of cases; CWP was most common (34%). Advanced disease was observed on medical imaging for 24% of subjects. Lung function results were equally split, 47.2% normal and 52.7% abnormal. On average, the tenure in coal mining was 26 years (range 6-45). The majority of subjects (44%) had only worked in underground coal mines. Surprisingly, 27% of subjects reported to have never worked in an underground coal mine.
We observed a diverse spectrum of diagnoses and severity ranged from mild to severe. Occupational history in terms of tenure and mine type varied across the subject group. It is hoped these findings will boost awareness of CMDLD
Dean Barr
A/Director, Coal Mine Workers’ Health Scheme
Kerri Melkersson
Director, Health Surveillance Unit, Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy
Since the re-identification of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis in Queensland in 2015, and reforms resultant from the Monash and UIC independent expert review of 2016, the department has implemented improved screening methods for the detection of respiratory disease in coal mine workers.
As at March 2019, more than 30,000 chest x-rays have been dual read to International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards, resulting in 99% returning a negative result for disease. Of the 1.0% which screened positive, 15 have resulted in a diagnosis of disease.</p .
The department receives reports of cases of mine dust lung disease (MDLD) through a number of pathways; doctors, mine operators and the workers’ compensation scheme all provide confirmation of diagnoses within the mining and quarrying sectors. As at March 2019, 99 cases of MDLD have been reported across all sectors since 1984 (89 since 2015).
Separate to the reforms implemented in the mining regulatory framework, the Queensland Parliament is considering a Bill to establish a Notifiable Dust Lung Diseases Register to be administered by Queensland Health. This will provide a further mechanism to ensure the incidence of disease is understood.
This paper provides an overview of the current screening pathways to detect MDLD in Queensland mine workers.
Supporting a healthy workforce has a range of potential benefits: improved employee performance and morale, improved safety, cost benefits, and broader social benefits to employees, their families and community. Achieving such gains requires timely and early access to effective options for providing health in a form that is tailored to the target population and the Industry more broadly. While health screening has been introduced in some sectors of the Coal Industry, innovative, accessible treatment options that wrap around available workplace health care options are needed.
This paper reports on the development and evaluation of a proposed solution; an online portal (‘Health-e Mines’) that provides a direct, real-time link between coal mining employees and the latest evidence based online screening, early intervention, and treatment programs for enhancing mental and physical health. Since January 2018, there have been 817 Health-e Mines site users. This has translated into 1,485 sessions by coal miners visiting the website, who have viewed, on average, two pages per session. The majority of visitors are accessing the site on Sundays at 4am, Mondays 12-3pm, and Wednesday 6-11am. Evaluation data on facilitators and barriers to use of Health-e Mines will also be reported.
Dr. Philip Tynan
National Toxicologist, Safe Work Laboratories
Dr. Naomi Rogers
Sleep and Fatigue Specialist, Naomi Rogers Fatigue
Despite longstanding industry attention to worksite safety, Safe Work Australia reported a 51% rise in serious injury claims in the mining sector from 2000 to 2014. There is a dangerous self-reinforcing relationship between workplace accidents and mental health, drug use and fatigue, which was highlighted by the recent ‘Mental Health and the NSW Mineral Industry’ report commissioned by the NSW Minerals Council which estimated that in any 12-month period between 8,000 and 10,000 NSW mine workers experienced mental illness and around 2,000 experienced a substance use disorder.
The use of drugs, including alcohol, has a disproportionately large impact on workplace safety. Altered memory, impaired coordination and poor concentration may delay reaction times and increase the risk of accident and injury –not just to themselves, but to their co-workers – especially when coupled with fatigue.
Raising awareness of the symptoms of these underlying conditions, and the synergistic effects of drugs and fatigue in worsening mental health – primarily through educational Fit-for-Work programs tailored to the needs of each particular industry and robust workplace drug-testing programs – has been shown in Australian and overseas studies to significantly reduce workplace accident rates by fostering the development and maintenance of zero tolerance safe workplace cultures.
Dr. Rebecca Allen
Researcher, School of Psychology, The University of Newcastle
Coal mining has been internationally recognised as a high-risk industry with high fatality rates in comparison to other occupations. Within the Australian coal mining industry, the level of occupational risk has been identified as 70% higher than the national average. The present study undertook an exploratory investigation of the causes of risk-taking among Australian coal miners. The study is the first to use a longitudinal approach to investigate the association between safety culture and risk-taking among Australian coal miners.
This approach allows clearer conclusions about the causal relations between variables. Data was collected via repeat survey from a sample of 233 open-cut and underground coal miners from New South Wales and Queensland. Perceived safety norms were found to be a significant longitudinal predictor of reported frequency of risk-taking. Miners who perceived it to be normal for miners at their mine site to ignore safety procedures and take risks were more likely to report taking safety risks in the future. This finding suggests that poor safety norms cause subsequent increases in risk-taking behaviour. Safety interventions are considered, focusing on improving perceived safety norms to potentially reduce risk-taking.
Christian Young
Managing Director, Impress Solutions Pty Ltd
Safety Differently describes a movement within the safety community to change the perspective of organisations in three key areas – the definition of safety, the role of people, and the focus of the organisation.
Traditional or “normal” safety management tends to view these three areas in this way:
Safety is defined as an absence of negatives (e.g., accidents, unacceptable risk, unsafe acts, etc.)
People are a problem that must be controlled
The organisation focuses on safety as a bureaucratic accountability to those above us hierarchically
By contrast, Safety Differently views these three key areas this way:
Safety is defined by the presence of positives, such as a capacity to be successful in varying conditions
People are the solution
The organisation focuses on safety as an ethical responsibility to those who do the organisation’s messy, risky work
Safety Differently is an approach used by organisations who wish to move beyond traditional safety management.
Through the lens of Safety Differently organisations can evaluate their existing strategies and look for opportunities to alter course. This presentation will further discuss how Safety Differently can be applied within the mining context.
Behavioural Safety is helping many organisations make inroads into improving safety performance.
Founded on decades of psychology research, behavioural safety positively reinforces target behaviours. By interacting in a positive manner, the studies indicate behavioural change is initiated.
Interactions occur between people and is often called a ‘safety observation’. Safety observations are, in many cases, documented into a system to scoreboard the number and type of behaviours observed.
Scoreboards focus on how many observations occur, rather than why behaviours occur. Evaluating the effect of an interaction, assessing the behavioural change and its repeatability, is paramount in behavioural safety.</p .
Powerful algorithms have been developed using the latest data science techniques, to assess the effect of interventions, like safety conversations, on large groups. These techniques are widely used in Marketing/Advertising, Finance/Insurance, Healthcare, Law Enforcement, and Politics.
Safety conversations are a window into the individual interactions. With certain data, it is possible to identify positive, negative or neutral interactions, and the effect over time.
This paper presents a robust and novel approach to assess sentiment analysis of documented safety observations, to predict the persuasive effects of leaders on their groups, and the resultant safety outcomes.