Factors associated with occupational injury severity in the New South Wales underground coal mining industry

The relationship between a large number of mine and mine worker characteristics and injury severity was examined using multiple regression techniques. The study was based on data extracted from the New South Wales (N.S.W.) Joint Coal Board's computer based accident/incident reporting system describing 21,372 non-fatal, lost-time injurious incidents that occurred in the N.S.W. underground coal mining industry during the 4 year period from 1 July 1986 to 30 June 1990. The number of days lost as a result of an injurious incident was the best available proxy measure of injury severity. Over the study period, the number of days lost per 100,000 tonnes of raw coal production declined by 73%. Over the same period, injurious incidents involving more than 20 days off work, which constituted only 16% of all injurious incidents in underground mines, resulted in 75% of the total days lost for the whole N.S.W. underground coal mining industry. Factors that had practical importance and that were significantly associated with injury severity included mine worker's age, part of the body injured, type of accident, agency of accident, and mine worker activity. Factors not important or not significant in their relationship with injury severity were: time into shift, previous hours worked, mine location of incident, occupation, work experience, frequency of task, shift, and mining region. This study suggests that factors related to the susceptibility of a mine worker's body tissue to damage or repair, and factors related to the concentration of energy on the mine worker by vehicle and environmental characteristics are important determinants of injury severity.     

Causal attributions of Ghanaian industrial workers for accident occurrence: miners and non-miners perspective

Problem: Reports from the accident literature indicate that accident rates tend to vary with type of occupation. The mining industry has been recorded as the most dangerous with a high disabling injury rate. This observation has been attributed to the extremely stressful conditions under which miners work. Besides, the intimidating work environment in the mines has been insinuated to invoke a sense of helplessness, fatalism and hence defensive causal attributions for accident occurrences. Method: This study compared causal attributions between accident victims in Ghana's mining industry with their counterparts in textile factories. T values and Chi-square were employed to test for statistically significant differences between the two groups of accident victims. Results: Findings indicate that there is no difference between the causal attributions for miners and non-miners. Impact on Industry: Accident frequency and occupational type have no impact on causal attributions.     

Measuring mining safety with injury statistics: lost workdays as indicators of risk

PROBLEM: Mining in the United States remains one of the most hazardous industries, despite significant reductions in fatal injury rates over the last century. Coal mine fatality rates, for example, have dropped almost a thousand-fold since their peak in 1908. While incidence rates are very important indicators, lost worktime measures offer an alternative metric for evaluating job safety and health performance. The first objective of this study examined the distributions and summary statistics of all injuries reported to the Mine Safety and Health Administration from 1983 through 2004. Over the period studied (1983-2004), there were 31,515,368 lost workdays associated with mining injuries, for an equivalent of 5,700 person-years lost annually. The second objective addressed the problem of comparing safety program performance in mines for situations where denominator data were lacking. By examining the consequences of injuries, comparisons can be made between disparate operations without the need for denominators. Total risk in the form of lost workday sums can help to distinguish between lower- and higher-risk operations or time periods. METHOD: Our method was to use a beta distribution to model the losses and to compare underground coal mining to underground metal/nonmetal mining from 2000 to 2004. RESULTS: Our results showed the probability of an injury having 10 or more lost workdays was 0.52 for coal mine cases versus 0.35 for metal/nonmetal mine cases. In addition, a comparison of injuries involving continuous mining machines over 2001-2002 versus 2003-2004 showed that the ratio of average losses in the later period to those in the earlier period was approximately 1.08, suggesting increasing risks for such operations. DISCUSSION: This denominator-free safety measure will help the mining industry more effectively identify higher-risk operations and more realistically evaluate their safety improvement programs. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Attention to a variety of metrics concerning the performance of a job safety and health program will enhance industry's ability to manage these programs and reduce risk.     

我国煤炭行业尘肺病现状分析及防治对策

尘肺病是我国目前最严重的职业病,每年新增尘肺病病例一万例以上,其中煤炭行业尘肺病病例约占全国尘肺病患者总数的50%。煤炭行业由尘肺病引发的矿工伤亡人数,远远高于各类工伤事故伤亡人数的总和。煤炭是我国的主要能源,在国民经济和社会发展中占重要地位,我国煤矿企业多,从业人员数量大,职业危害严重,其中以粉尘危害最为突出。煤矿尘肺病不仅危及矿工的身体健康和生命安全,而且关系到国民经济的发展和社会的和谐稳定。我国煤矿尘肺病现状堪忧,尘肺病发病病例不降反升,分布更加广泛,矿工检查诊断和求治不及时,尘肺病防治工作形势严峻。本文具体分析了我国煤矿尘肺病现状,从管理、技术、资金以及法律等多方面深入探讨了导致如今现状的原因,最后针对各方面原因提出了煤炭行业尘肺病防治对策。     

我国煤矿安全生产与监管中的三方博弈分析

煤炭开采是我国最大的高危行业之一，本文针对我国煤矿安全事故频繁的现状和特点，从煤矿的内部管理与政府对煤矿的监督两方面入手，深入分析了我国煤矿安全监管体制中行为原因而存在的问题，从而建立了我国煤矿安全管理中基于政府、煤矿和职工的三方博弈模型。根据博弈模型的求解结果，建立了能使三方达到均衡的加强煤矿安全生产和完善监管体制的几点建议。     

Probability of death,disability, and restricted work activity in United States underground bituminous coal mines, 1975–1981

This study examined relationships between mine and miner characteristics and severity of 82,945 underground bituminous coal mine injuries using logistic regression techniques. Injuries were classified as severe if they resulted in death, disability, or restricted work activity. Supervisory and maintenance personnel were found to have fewer chances of severe injuries than “all other” job classifications. A shaft or slope had a lower association with severe injuries than the face. The probability of a severe injury increased each succeeding year from 1975 through 1981. Mining method was not related to degree of injury. Older miners had the same probability of severe injuries as younger miners. Weeks of experience in mining, on a particular job, and in a specific mine were not related to severity of injuries. Mobile equipment operators had the same chance of severe injuries as miners in “all other” job classifications. Accidents at intersections and “other” locations were as likely to produce severe injuries as those at the face. Elapsed shift time prior to an injury was not related to injury severity. The implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations made for future research.     

井下有限空间内作业人员噪声危害调查

为研究煤矿井下环境相对封闭、空间相对有限的情况下,噪声对作业人员的影响及危害,通过问卷调查的形式,分别对开滦集团东欢坨及荆各庄2煤矿井下5个不同作业区人员进行了共计200份的噪声危害问卷调查。将问卷调查结果通过SPSS软件进行统计与分析,并将SPSS分析得到的数据用于分析井下噪声对作业人员的影响及危害,归纳出噪声对作业人员的影响因素,并对噪声、影响因素及症状之间建立了井下噪声对作业人员影响的理论关系模型。结果表明:在井下有限空间内,噪声对作业人员的危害最严重的症状是耳鸣,危害最轻的症状是畏惧感;参与调查的多为年龄较大、工龄较长的作业人员,噪声对工龄较长者的危害程度要大于对年龄较大者,且工龄与噪声危害之间存在Pearson相关性系数大于0的正相关关系。     

全工班呼吸性粉尘测定及防尘措施研究

针对呼吸性粉尘对矿井工人身体健康的危害,对煤矿综采工作面、综掘工作面、炮掘工作面等进行分工种个体性的全尘和呼尘监测,测定了各工作面粉尘(全尘和呼尘)的浓度、粉尘分散度和SiO2浓度。其结果表明:全工班呼吸性粉尘测定的方法更加真实可靠,更真实地反映了呼吸性粉尘对井下各操作工种的致病危害,测得的各工作面各工种的呼尘浓度均高于国家标准。通过数据的分析以及工人的建议,提出了一些新式的、有效的防尘措施来降低呼吸性粉尘对人体健康的危害。     

基于因子分析的开采层瓦斯抽采方法选择

基于煤与瓦斯的七个基本参数,应用因子分析方法,得到了反应本煤层抽放难易程度、突出危险性及瓦斯涌出量(不考虑邻近层影响)的三个因子。依据因子得分对开采层瓦斯抽放难易程度及煤与瓦斯突出危险性进行了分类,进而对开采层瓦斯预抽方法进行判断。结果表明,采用因子分析的方法进行开采层瓦斯预抽方法的选择与现场抽放设计基本一致,并且对于传统方法无法分类的情况也给出了合理的分类判断。采用该方法可以较客观、合理的选择开采层瓦斯抽采方法。     

基于三角模糊数的矿井火灾事故树分析

利用事故树分析法对矿井火灾进行分析,结合平煤六矿建立了矿井火灾事故树.应用模糊重要度法对事故树基本事件进行排序,把导致火灾的两大因素进行模糊分级.从模糊概率排序以及分级可以看出,引燃火源和可燃物是比较危险的因素,发生的概率比较大.要想从根本上杜绝火灾,就要严格管理这两个重要的因素.这对于煤矿决策管理有着较重要的意义.     

Depth perception,dark adaptation,vigilance and accident proneness of Chinese coal mine workers

To explore the relationships between human factors and accident proneness of coal mine workers, the depth perception, dark adaptation and vigilance abilities of 239 Chinese coal mine workers were tested and their accident proneness was surveyed with an accident proneness questionnaire. The results indicated that dark adaptation and vigilance abilities of the mine workers declined with increasing age. Vigilance had a significant negative relationship with accident proneness. There were significant differences in vigilance between coal mine workers doing different types of work. Individual difference in vigilance was relevant to the type of work that an individual did in a coal mine. The dark adaptation index had a significant positive relationship with accident proneness. Coal mine workers with weaker dark adaptation ability were also more accident prone. Some ergonomics recommendations concerning coal mine safety management in China are proposed.     

基于项目反应理论的矿工应急响应能力评估

个人应急响应能力评估是个体应急处置能力建设和提升的基础。为了有效测度矿工应急响应能力,提出了一种基于项目反应理论的矿工应急响应能力评估方法。首先,运用信息加工模型对人员应急响应能力形成机理进行分析;然后以煤矿机电作业人员为例,从危险情景判断和响应状态两个维度设计矿工应急反应状况测试题,获取某矿20名机电作业人员应急反应数据,并借助项目反应理论中两参数Logistic模型项目特征曲线对煤矿机电作业人员应急响应能力进行评估;研究结果表明,项目反应理论可用于测度矿工个人应急响应能力,可以为矿工应急响应能力提升提供理论指导。     

2007-2014年中国煤矿井下工人心理健康状况研究

为研究我国煤矿井下工人的心理健康状况随年代的变迁,采用传统元分析与横断历史研究相结合的方式,通过文献检索,选取2007-2014年间采用症状自评量表(SCL-90)所得的符合要求的25组数据,分析了13 031名煤矿井下工人在该量表9个因子上的得分随年代的变化情况.结果表明:1)煤矿井下工人SCL-90各因子均值与年代均呈负相关(-0.55 ～-0.05),且在“躯体化”、“强迫”、“人际关系敏感”、“抑郁”、“敌对”方面的年代效益显著;比较2007年与2014年煤矿井下矿工SCL-90各因子的均值后发现,各因子均值在2007年较在2014年减小了0.37～0.55个标准差(即效果值d),表明2007年以来,煤矿井下工人的心理问题越来越少,心理健康水平稳步提高;2)与成人男性常模相比,煤矿井下工人SCL-90各因子的效果值均大于“0”,尤其是“躯体化”(d=0.53)和“恐怖”(d=0.33)的效果量皆为中,且置信区间不含“0”,显然在“躯体化”和“恐怖”方面的差异还较显著,表明煤矿井下工人在这两方面的心理问题比较突出.     

中美煤矿安全比较与借鉴

中国和美国都是煤炭生产和消费大国,但是中国的煤矿安全却与美国存在巨大差距。笔者首先从两国历年来煤矿安全数据分析入手,认为:美国煤矿安全经历了严重恶化、小幅波动和安全稳定3个阶段;而中国的煤矿经历了改革开放前大起大落和其后的小幅波动两个阶段,迄今为止,还没有进入安全稳定时期。然后从法规、监察、采矿权、安全投入、矿工及工会、教育及培训、科技进步等7个方面对两国的煤矿安全进行了比较。最后,借鉴美国进入第3阶段的成功经验,提出一些改善中国煤矿安全的相应对策建议,如完善法规、加强监管、明晰采矿权、设立安全投入预算资金、改善矿工的弱势地位、加强教育与培训、依靠科技进步等。     

Teenage driver crash incidence and factors influencing crash injury by rurality

BackgroundPrevious research has identified teenage drivers as having an increased risk for motor-vehicle crash injury compared with older drivers, and rural roads as having increased crash severity compared with urban roads. Few studies have examined incidence and characteristics of teen driver-involved crashes on rural and urban roads.MethodsAll crashes involving a driver aged 10 through 18 were identified from the Iowa Department of Transportation crash data from 2002 through 2008. Rates of overall crashes and fatal or severe injury crashes were calculated for urban, suburban, rural, and remote rural areas. The distribution of driver and crash characteristics were compared between rural and urban crashes. Logistic regression was used to identify driver and crash characteristics associated with increased odds of fatal or severe injury among urban and rural crashes.ResultsFor younger teen drivers (age 10 through 15), overall crash rates were higher for more rural areas, although for older teen drivers (age 16 through 18) the overall crash rates were lower for rural areas. Rural teen crashes were nearly five times more likely to lead to a fatal or severe injury crash than urban teen crashes. Rural crashes were more likely to involve single vehicles, be late at night, involve a failure to yield the right-of-way and crossing the center divider.ConclusionsIntervention programs to increase safe teen driving in rural areas need to address specific risk factors associated with rural roadways.Impact on IndustryTeen crashes cause lost work time for teen workers as well as their parents. Industries such as safety, health care, and insurance have a vested interest in enhanced vehicle safety, and these efforts should address risks and injury differentials in urban and rural roadways.     

Methods to determine the mine gas explosibility – An overview

Mine gas explosions present a serious safety threat in the worldwide mining industry. Since the beginning of mining, many coal miners have been killed due to the explosions. Accordingly, on a regular basis, mine operators should get air samples from the underground atmosphere. At the same time, monitoring and tracking the explosibility of the air sample should be done as a timely matter to avoid any potential explosions. All these works can provide very important information to assist the mine operators to well understand the mine atmospheric status and its trends. In additional, when facing the coal spontaneous combustion, mine fire events, or other chemical reactions related mine accidents, determination of explosibility is a definitely significant work for the safety of miners and mine rescue personnel especially when planning and implementing any mine rescue strategies. For many years, mining engineers and researchers have developed a number of methods for assessing the explosibility of the air–gas-mixture. Their research results provide a baseline for judgments of the mine gas explosibility and in determining the extent of change. In this paper, main popular and typical methods used in mining industry to determine the mine gas explosibility are introduced and reviewed. Case demonstrations for each method are also shown and can be used to instruct readers to understand how to apply them. Finally, a brief discussion about the current methods is presented and some preliminary suggestions are also listed for the further improvements in the future research.     

Applying Hierarchical Loglinear Models to Nonfatal Underground Coal Mine Accidents for Safety Management

Underground mining is considered to be one of the most dangerous industries and mining remains the most hazardous occupation. Categorical analysis of accident records may present valuable information for preventing accidents. In this study, hierarchical loglinear analysis was applied to occupational injuries that occurred in an underground coal mine. The main factors affecting the accidents were defined as occupation, area, reason, accident time and part of body affected. By considering subfactors of the main factors, multiway contingency tables were prepared and, thus, the probabilities that might affect nonfatal injuries were investigated. At the end of the study, important accident risk factors and job groups with a high probability of being exposed to those risk factors were determined. This article presents important information on decreasing the number accidents in underground coal mines.     

The relationship of occupational injury and use of mental health care

Introduction: Symptoms of depression and anxiety are a common consequence of occupational injury regardless of its cause and type. Nevertheless, mental health care is rarely covered by workers’ compensation systems. The aim of this study was to assess the use of mental health care post-injury. Methods: We used a subsample of patient-care workers from the Boston Hospital Workers Health Study (BHWHS). We matched one injured worker with three uninjured workers during the period of 2012–2014 based on age and job title (nurse or patient-care associate) and looked at their mental health care use pre- and post-injury using medical claims data from the employer sponsored health plan. We used logistic regression analysis to assess the likelihood of mental health care use three and six months post-injury controlling for any pre-injury visits. Analyses were repeated separately by job title. Results: There were 556 injured workers between 2012 and 2014 that were matched with three uninjured workers at the time of injury (n = 1,649). Injured workers had a higher likelihood of seeking mental health care services than their uninjured counterparts during the six months after injury (OR = 1.646, 95% CI: 1.23–2.20), but not three months post-injury (OR = 0.825, 95% CI: 0.57–1.19). Patient-care associates had a higher likelihood to seek mental health care post-injury, than nurses (OR: 2.133 vs OR: 1.556) during the six months period. Conclusions: Injured workers have a higher likelihood to experience symptoms of depression and anxiety based on their use of mental health care post-injury and use is more predominant among patient-care associates; however, our sample has a small number of patient-care associates. Practical Applications: Treating depression and anxiety as part of the workers’ compensation system has the potential of preventing further physical ailment and improving the return to work process regardless of nature of injury.     

煤矿工人常见的呼吸系统疾病及防护

文章介绍了煤矿工人常见的呼吸系统疾病,并从加强职业安全卫生监督、改革工艺、宣传教育、定期体检等多个方面提出了干预措施,为今后保障煤炭工人的健康提出科学依据。