In this study, soil samples were collected from a large-scale open-cast coal mine area in Inner Mongolia, China. Arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), beryllium (Be) and nickel (Ni) in soil samples were detected using novel collision/reaction cell technology (CCT) with inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS; collectively ICP-CCT-MS) after closed-vessel microwave digestion. Human health risk...

The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has been researching refuge alternatives (RAs) since 2007. RAs typically have built-in pressure relief valves (PRVs) to prevent the unit from reaching unsafe pressures. The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration requires that these valves vent the chamber at a maximum pressure of 1.25 kPa (0.18 psi, 5.0 in. H2O), or as s...

Differential SAR Interferometry (D-InSAR) is an effective tool in monitoring land subsidence because of its greater coverage area and better resolution of height change. A series of Japanese Earth Resources Satallite-1 (JERS-1) images from 1992 to 1998 has been used in monitoring the mine subsidence in the test site of this study, one of the important coal mining areas in China. D-InSAR procedu...

Fatal accidents associated with underground coal mines require the implementation of high-level gas monitoring and miner’s localization approaches to promote underground safety and health. This study introduces a real-time monitoring, event-reporting and early-warning platform, based on cluster analysis for outlier detection, spatiotemporal statistical analysis, and an RSS range-based weighted ...

In order to improve the accuracy, sensitivity, reliability, stability and maintainability of coal mine safety monitoring system, enhance guarantee ability, combined with national environmental network construction scheme production management regulations, status data are analyzed. efficiency provide reliable for mine, system harmful gas in working site roadway is established.

The wide adoption of underground mining has contributed immensely to the rapid growth of the countries’ economy, job creation, gross domestic product, fixed capital formation, gross investment and merchandise exports on an enormous global scale. At the same time, the tedious and dangerous nature of underground mining makes it vulnerable to mine accidents and disasters, such as the fall of loose...

This paper describes efforts of NLP researchers to create a system to aid the relief efforts during the 2011 East Japan Earthquake. Specifically, we created a system to mine information regarding the safety of people in the disaster-stricken area from Twitter, a massive yet highly unorganized information source. We describe the large scale collaborative effort to rapidly create robust and effec...

Aiming at the mine safety problem, this paper proposes a gas concentration monitoring system design scheme based on ZigBee Pro. The scheme designs a set of ZigBee Pro wireless network combined software with hardware based on KGS-20 gas sensor and CC2530 chip as the controller core. According to the fuzzy reasoning technology and multi-factors information fusion technology, a new method for the ...

Ventilation is one of the key safety tasks in underground mines. Determination of the airflow through mine openings and ducts is complex and often requires the application of numerical analysis. The governing equations used in the computation of mine ventilation are discussed in matrix forms. The aim of this paper is to compare the most frequently used numerical analysis methods, which includes...

U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) regulations require underground coal mines to use refuge alternatives (RAs) to provide a breathable air environment for 96 hours. One of the main concerns with the use of mobile RAs is heat and humidity buildup inside the RA. The accumulation of heat and humidity can result in miners suffering heat stress or even death. MSHA regulations require ...