Health & safety The boiling point
Heat stress is a serious occupational health problem across mining – and with climate change increasing the regularity of hot weather events, is only becoming more and more of an issue. Andrea Valentino chats with Glen Kenny of the University of Ottawa, and Kristin Yeoman of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), to
learn more about the challenges the mining industry faces over protecting workers from rising temperatures, how the so-called ‘buddy system’ might prove more successful than mere rules – and why climate change means the problem of heat stress is only going to continue.
colleagues were expected to do was go on a walk – and as a senior field technician, aged just 49, Fogarty was probably confident he could manage the exploration reconnaissance required of him. But, as he began his trek, through the red and dusty outback of Pilbara, things quickly went wrong. The distance was bad enough. A 16km hike is tough at the best of times, let alone over rugged terrain across the thinly populated wastelands of Western Australia (WA). But what really doomed the Rio
W
hen Paul Fogarty started his day on 14 October 2017, he probably didn’t expect it to be his last. All he and his two
Tinto employee was the temperature, peaking at 37°C even in early autumn. Perhaps exacerbated by leg cramps from the previous evening, Fogarty soon collapsed, and couldn’t be resuscitated. After the event, Rio Tinto was forced to pay an A$80,000 fine, as well as costs of A$7,500, for failing to protect their employee – a situation apparently exacerbated by the fact that Fogarty and his colleagues weren’t aware that they had to complete heat stress assessments before setting out that fateful October day. But what’s really remarkable about Fogarty’s tragedy is how common it is. In 2015, for instance, Adam Perttula, another miner in WA, died during a night shift underground, likely due to heatstroke and exhaustion. Two years later, yet another Australian mine worker suffered a similar fate, succumbing to a cocktail of overheating and diesel
32
World Mining Frontiers /
www.nsenergybusiness.com
orld Mining Frontiers /
www.nsenergybusiness.com
Darkydoors/
Shutterstock.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47
