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 heal...

Recent U.S. mine disasters identified a need for improved training of miners in escape from mine fires and explosions. Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) Spokane Research Labora­ tory (SRL) have designed fire-escape training software for use in a mine-safety training course. The software allows four trainees to work together in a virtual world via...

Five mine fire experiments were conducted in a 2.08 m high and 2.90 m wide, ventilated mine entry in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)’s Safety Research Coal Mine (SRCM) to determine the effect of the dispersion of carbon monoxide (CO) on mine fire detection. CO measurements were made at distances from 7.6 m to 45.2 m downwind from the fire with diffusion mode CO...

The complex and changeful system of coal mine increases the difficulty and importance of its decision-making. Individual decisions sometimes can not bring satisfactory outcomes since the decision need broad knowledge and experience which is not in single field but related to many domains of economics, sociology, logic, etc. To improve the validity and objectivity of decision-making, the group d...

In an effort to increase productivity, many longwall mining operations in the U.S. have continually increased face lengths. Unfortunately, the mining of larger panels may increase methane emissions. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted a mine safety research study to characterize and quantify the methane emissions resulting from increasing face lengths in ...

This paper will propose a whole new viewpoint about building a CSPMS(Coal-mine Safety Production Management System) by means of information technology. This system whose core part is a four-grade automatic triggered warning system achieves the goal that information transmission will be smooth, nondestructive and in time. At the same time, the system provides a comprehensive and collective techn...

This paper outlines the status of Australian coal mining industry with respect to safety and welfare of the mine employee. The impact of tie longer shift hours and compressed working week are discussed in relation to workers safety and employment levels. Longer shift hours and compressed works have shown to be a benefit to miners, both in safety and socially. The paper also examines the role of...