Luke Ripper
Senior Occupational Hygienist, GCG Health Safety & Hygiene
GCG has provided the Queensland Mining Industry with occupational hygiene services for over 10 years. In light of winning an innovation award from Spotless/Downer, GCG has also been involved in driving solutions around data analytics for positive pressure in cabins.
This year we’re doing things a bit different – ‘Whiteboard Sessions with GCG’. This is available for anyone who has a challenging occupational hygiene problem at hand and interested in an interactive discussion with a qualified hygienist. Come have a chat!
Daniel Grundy
General Manager, GRT
GRT provides engineered solutions for dust control, process optimisation, erosion control, road stabilisation and water management in the Resources, Roads and Rural sectors.
Our company is wholly Australian owned, based in Queensland, but with staff based in each state, who service mining, quarrying, civil, and rural clients both nationally and internationally.
GRT products and site solutions are developed by our own technical staff in conjunction with key industry partners – we provide the total site management options from pit to port!
Bobby Irving
Queensland Territory Manager, Bolle Safety
Bollé was founded in 1888 in Oyonnax, France. As an Industry leader with innovative products, the Bollé family has grown from the small workshop beginnings to become the leading global manufacturer of quality eyewear. Today, more than 100 years later, Bollé protective eyewear is distributed and worn in all parts of the globe. Glasses, goggles and face shields for industry, always more efficient, more protective and more comfortable. Think Innovative Vision, think Bolle Safety.
Matthew Pederson-Howard, Vice President, Safety and Health, Peabody and
Adam Schloss,
Production Superintendent, Peabody Australia
Creswick Bulger
Senior Inspector of Mines, Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy
This paper discusses critical controls – those which can prevent fatal and catastrophic events from occurring in Queensland surface coal mines. To understand what the critical controls are we have to identify all fatal hazards in surface coal mines.
Analysis of all fatalities that have occurred in Queensland coal mines since 1969, show hazards causing the majority of fatalities in surface mines are distinctly different to those causing the majority of fatalities in underground mines. During this 50 year period there have been 132 fatalities in Queensland coal mines, 94 in underground and 38 in surface mines.
A breakdown shows 86% of fatalities in underground mines were caused by principal hazards. In surface mines only 24% of fatalities were caused by principal hazards. This means for surface mines the majority of critical controls relate to a number of fatal hazards which are not principal hazards.
Based on that analysis the Queensland coal mine inspectorate has sought information from surface coal mine companies relating to the fatal hazards and critical controls identified within their risk identification systems. This information will be developed into audit and inspection guidelines which the inspectorate will apply when carrying out inspections and audits at surface coal mines.
Dr. Tilman Rasche
Principal Mining Engineer, Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy
The Minerals Council of Australia has identified that tyre fitters at mining operations are ten times more likely to be killed at work than mine diesel mechanics (Hassal 2016). Rim disassembly is particularly hazardous and resulted in seven fatalities in the Australasian region, over the last 15 years.
To better control this fatal hazard a mechanical interference feature, often called the Surelock bead seat band, was patented in 1986. It aims to prevent the inflation and consequential dangerous disassembly of earthmover tyre and rim assemblies, should a lockring be incorrectly fitted.
This presentation, based on the authors recent Australian Coal Association Research Project C26036, aims to raise awareness of this safety feature, explain some of the advantages, disadvantages and misconceptions about this design.
It will also reinforce the urgent need for better industry-wide training approaches around tyre and rim maintenance and highlight a much needed review and update of the Australian Standard ‘AS 4457.1—2007 – Earth-moving machinery—Off-the-road wheels, rims and tyres’, particularly around an improved universal marking and labelling standard of rim componentry.
This seemingly modest change will allow tyre fitters to better identify matching rim and wheel componentry thereby significantly reducing the reoccurrence of rim related fatalities.
Cristian Sylvestre
Managing Director, HabitSafe
There has been considerable research (empirical studies and academic papers) during the last 10 years investigating human decision making.
The most disruptive discovery is that what we think of as a deliberate choice (an “active” conscious decision) happens fundamentally in the subconscious and is fed to the conscious mind very late in the neurological process. This is why it feels like we only make conscious decisions.
Three thinking principles help explain human decision making and enable us to understand human behaviour better.
These are automatic thinking (autopilot), social thinking and mental thinking models. As such, they also provide valuable clues to determine how we can future-proof efforts by organisations to make behaviours safer.
The lessons from these three thinking principles can be applied to three different layers in organisations:
- Leadership
- Teams
- Individuals
The latest findings from studies in neuroscience, behaviour science, cognitive behavioural science and neuropsychology are used to explain how safety behaviour can be influenced more effectively.
Ian Hawkins
Seam Gas Manager, Anglo American – Moranbah North Mine
Minimising risk to our people is Anglo American’s number one priority. Anglo American has implemented a system to improve the control of works being conducted on the surface to support the underground operations.
Recognising that unplanned work can often be the most unsafe, Moranbah North operation has taken advantage of the existing, proven underground planning tool and processes (Fewzion) and aligned the surface operations to these processes.
The surface area of the mining lease has been split into geographical zones with a zone controller responsible for each zone.
All activities in each zone are planned within a shared database (Fewzion) and managed and scheduled through planning meetings and agreed processes.
Any break-in or unplanned work is assessed independently by the activity owner and zone controller prior to approval to proceed is granted.
Zoning of surface works provides confidence that:
- All surface work activities are planned and scheduled, minimising the need for break-in and unplanned work
- Permits to Work are in place, with associated risk assessment and hazard identification completed
- Simultaneous works are identified – minimising conflicting work areas
- All work is communicated to all surface workers – maximising awareness
- Break-in work is effectively managed, as it is planned through the scheduling process.
Dr. Andrew Lingwood
Director and Consultant Occupational and Environmental Physician, OccPhyz Consulting
Fatigue is a vital health and safety issue in the mining industry with a multitude of medical and organisational causes and implications.
This presentation will focus on the nature of circadian rhythms and how they can contribute to fatigue. The ways in which shift work can impact these matters is specifically considered, given the relevance of varied work and shift patterns to the mining industry.
The physiological effects of fatigue will also be discussed, including how these can translate into performance-based effects.
The presentation will also consider the complex interactions between the multiple medical, social and employment factors which contribute to fatigue.
Dr. Philip Tynan
National Toxicologist, Safe Work Laboratories
It is widely accepted Customs and Police Drug confiscation, self-report surveys (such as the National Household Drug Survey), and roadside and workplace drug testing give only a crude picture of overall community drug use. By assaying drug concentrations in sewage effluent, it is possible to obtain timely information on the actual spectrum of drugs used at a site and calculate the average drug dose per person.
Wastewater Drug Testing has been used internationally and in Australia (in the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program 2016 – 2019) to measure and interpret drug use within national populations and at selected worksites enabling the identification of problem areas, drugs of concern and monitoring changes in use patterns. A great advantage of Wastewater drug analysis is that it is not subject to response bias and can be used as an outcome measurement tool to gauge the effectiveness of a workplace’s drug use intervention strategy. Workplace drug use may reflect local drug use but as Australian workplace studies (including minesites) have shown, it can often be a reflection of the unique drug-taking culture at that workplace.
Mark Holmes
Chairman, Circadian Australia
Until recently, key decisions on fitness for duty in the mining industry relied on subjective self-assessment by individual workers and subjective assessments made by Supervisors and Health and Safety Professionals.
Circadian Australia’s holistic approach to enhancing Sleep Quality, Sleep Quantity, Alertness, Safety, Health, Wellbeing and the Sustainable Resilience of workers in the Mining Industry, combines scientifically validated Fatigue Science Readiband™ Real-Time and Predictive Alertness Actigraphy data with Awareness, Education, Training, and confidential sleep coaching for individuals.
By collecting and analysing scientifically validated, objective, sleep and alertness data we help mining industry workers to take the guesswork out of measuring and managing sleep, fatigue and human performance and to visualise their alertness levels for the day and/or night ahead so they can operate and perform at their very best by knowing how circadian disruption, shift work and extended hours are impacting sleep quality, sleep quantity, their real-time and predictive alertness.
Developed with proprietary algorithms from the US Army Research Lab, the Readiband™ is the only validated system than can understand the cumulative effects of sleep and translate them into an objective, predictive measure of one’s alertness (fatigue).
The provision of information, instruction, training and supervision is an essential component of any risk management strategy. A robust training and assessment program is fundamental to the safety of not
only those conducting tasks, but also other workers and people who may be affected by their work.
Can our training and assessment programs be more robust? Have we let complacency slip in? Have we stopped training and assessing in some areas because “it hasn’t happened for a while”?
During this Workshop, coordinated by the Resources Training Council, we will explore these questions and more.