MSHA's message: Prevention preferable to cure

The air miners breathe, the noise they hear, the equipment they use and the substances they consume all pose safety risks. The industry has learned this the hard way, with tens of thousands of mining fatalities in the 20th century, but today safety regulations are stringent and there is a plethora of measures that can be taken to prevent injuries and ill-health. To discuss what's being done at mines around Alaska, the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration held its Spring Thaw informational seminar in Anchorage April 26.

This was MSHA's second annual Spring Thaw event. The first, not so aptly named, took place last year in Fairbanks - when the temperature was 30 below zero. This year the weather in Anchorage was unseasonably hot. MSHA hopes to continue moving the event around and to expand it from the roughly 25 participants who currently attend. It is an opportunity for mining companies to present their safety innovations and to question representatives of the federal agency that makes the rules.

Speaking about dust and noise, Dennis Steffy, the director of the University of Alaska Anchorage's Mining and Petroleum Training Service, used himself as an example of the long-term health hazards. "The part of dust we get worked up about is silica. A hundred thousand of our miners a year are at risk of contracting silicosis, with 250 deaths a year," Steffy said. "When I started out, my first job was running a track drill, drilling six-inch blast holes, 12 hours a day, six days a week, no dust control, no noise control whatsoever. And it generally took you from Friday night until Sunday morning to get enough of that coughed up so you could go to church."

Decades later Steffy still experiences residual effects of the dust he inhaled, and the noise has caused him permanent hearing loss that makes it difficult for him to understand his eight grandchildren - this despite the fact that for most of his career he has been an instructor, not a miner. "I never thought I was going to get rocked up when I was 17 years old," Steffy said. "And then suddenly you're 60-some years old and you're rocked up, and the doctor says, what in the world happened to you? And you go back and think about all that stuff."

Dust particles accumulate

Dust particles half a micron in size or less can get into the lungs and never come back up, accumulating and creating scar tissue. Asbestos, beryllium and crystalline silica (quartz) are the most dangerous types of dust. There is no effective treatment for the chronic illnesses caused by dust, such as pneumonoconiosis and fibrosis. So the illnesses have to be prevented, and there are three methods of prevention: administrative processes, engineering processes, and - if those are insufficient - the use of personal protective equipment.

"Folks in the mechanical shops quite often turn up with asbestos, because there still are some brake linings, some frictions, some gaskets that contain amounts of asbestos," Steffy said. "Somebody should know, when you're working with that stuff, that they should either wear respiratory protection, keep it wet, or whatever."

Scott Horn, MSHA's Anchorage field office supervisor, previously worked for the state of California as an inspector at the country's last asbestos mine. "I had more over-exposure to asbestos due to brake linings than I ever had at that asbestos mine," Horn said. "That was their product, it was pure white in the hills, they mined it, they hauled it down the hills ... If you know what you're doing and you know what you're getting into, you can take care of it." The biggest danger is when people are unaware of the risks they are taking, he added.

Planning ahead crucial

"You ought to be thinking about dust from the start, dust and noise," Steffy said. "Because retrofitting a system that's already built, to control dust or control noise is tough, whereas if you hit it from the top, right in the design process, it's a lot cheaper, there's lots of neat things you can do." The amount of dust miners are exposed to can be measured by asking them to wear a personal sampling pump that weighs about 12 ounces. Miners using a sampling device must be trained to do so properly, following the manufacturer's instructions, and the value of doing the sampling should be explained to them so that they don't just leave the device on a shelf all day.

Hearing loss due to noise must be prevented at mines because it is irreversible, according to Steffy. "Thirteen percent of the mining population will develop a hearing impairment during their working lifetime, which includes most jackleg drillers," he said. "Nerves do not regenerate themselves. Once you kill a nerve, that's it." Excessive noise also causes fatigue, irritability, anxiety, muscular tension, increased blood pressure and decreased work productivity.

MSHA's noise rule requires mine operators to enroll miners in a hearing protection program if they are exposed to an average sound level of 85 decibels or more over an eight-hour period. The exposure limit is 90 decibels for eight hours. Every three decibels approximately doubles the sound level, as the scale is logarithmic. A miner may legally be exposed to 115 decibels - the noise of an air track drill - for a maximum of 15 minutes. "The rule in industrial hygiene is what matters is the dose; it's not the intensity; it's not the length of time you're exposed to it, but rather it is the product of intensity and exposure," Steffy said.

The noise from sandblasting is about 125 decibels, the noise of a crusher is about 95 decibels and the noise of a haul truck is about 85 decibels. High-quality mufflers and silencers should be installed, Steffy said. Earplugs should be correctly fitted, filling at least two-thirds of the ear canal. Badly maintained equipment makes more noise than well-maintained equipment with the proper lubrication. Operators should keep track of the noise at their mines using meters so they can work out whether an employee's hearing loss was caused at work, or at home due to firing guns, for example. Employees' hearing should be tested when they are first hired and every year after that.

Diesel emission reduction at Greens Creek

Greg Majeran, safety supervisor at Greens Creek, gave a presentation about the Juneau polymetallic mine's efforts to reduce diesel emissions. Greens Creek is one of the leading mines in the country for control of diesel particulate and in January 2003 it participated in an MSHA study of the issue. The study concluded that the use of ceramic after-filters on vehicles reduced average engine emissions by 96 percent. Diesel soot is a carcinogen.

The current limit for diesel emissions in a mine is 400 micrograms per cubic meter. Greens Creek's ventilation systems and filters enable it to achieve an average of 280 micrograms per cubic meter. As of Jan. 1, 2006, the limit is expected to be lowered to 160 micrograms. "We need to significantly increase the airflows in the mine to more than double, and that's going to present other problems," Majeran said. "When we achieve that, people will basically be working in a wind storm, it'll create a lot more dust in the environment, and so on. We're kind of struggling right now with seeing how we can achieve those levels of ventilation."

The proposed limit of 160 micrograms is very low, and negotiations are still going on over the final number, Majeran said. Greens Creek is already very well ventilated. It is always trying to improve its filters, which are fitted onto the exhausts of all underground equipment, and has installed Mercedes engines in the entire fleet, because they are considered the cleanest. In addition, Greens Creek plans to incorporate ultra low-sulfur fuel in its operating plan as it becomes readily available, and to use environmental cabs on vehicles.

Greens Creek has found that many filters do not live up to manufacturers' promises in terms of durability, although they are very expensive, often costing around $10,000. Some fail because the ceramic material inside them starts to decompose, allowing the soot to bypass the filter. "You basically need to take those things apart from time to time and have a look at them and make sure that that's not happening," Majeran said. Diesel particulate is more of a concern for metal mines than for coal mines, because coal mines use considerably less horsepower.

Risk assessment program at Greens Creek

Majeran also talked about Greens Creek's Take Five risk assessment program, which strives to prevent accidents from happening at the mine. Greens Creek won MSHA's national Sentinels of Safety award in 2003 for completing 468,351 employee work-hours without a lost-time injury. Take Five is an informal risk assessment that should be performed by employees before every job. The five steps are: think through the task, spot the hazards, assess the risk, make the changes and do the job safely.

"Everybody is accountable to perform their work as safely as possible, and that's a condition of employment," Majeran said. The mine is not perfect, he added, and a work-related incident is reported on average every 2.2 days. In 2004-05 there have been 27 first aid cases, three medical treatment cases and two lost time injuries at Greens Creek. The Take Five program has resulted in an incremental reduction in reportable injuries every year since it was first implemented in 2002.

Every Greens Creek employee receives a pocket-sized card with the Take Five steps printed on it and a matrix that helps them to determine the level of risk, based on the probability of something going wrong and the seriousness of the consequences. If the risk level appears to be critical or high, a written risk assessment is required before the employee may proceed with the task. "Three or four years ago at Greens Creek if you went up to an employee and said the words 'risk' and 'assessment' together, they wouldn't have really understood what you were talking about," Majeran said.

Gravel pit safety issues

Gravel pits have their own specific safety issues, as they appeal to kids and hunters on ATVs, Sarah Lefebvre said in her presentation.

"They think of a gravel pit as a recreational site, not being aware of the drop-offs and the edges." Lefebvre is an administrative manager with Exclusive Paving in Fairbanks, which owns, leases and operates several gravel pits.

The company uses fences, gates, surveillance and prominent "Dangerous Area, No Trespassing" signs to keep people away from its property, but that still isn't enough to deter some foolhardy types.

Trespassing is hard to prosecute because state troopers are too busy to investigate, Lefebvre said, and they won't bring a case unless they catch the same person twice.

Ensuring that legitimate customers and contractors follow the rules is another challenge. Signs indicate that everyone must report to the office unless they have a pit pass. These are issued annually and the color changes each year so old pit passes can't be used. "The hardest part of all of this has been the enforcement. It's gotten easier over the years," Lefebvre said. Truck drivers have tried exchanging pit passes with each other, and to combat this, the company introduced a rule banning anyone from the site caught with a borrowed pass. Once one truck driver was banned, the rest stopped taking the risk.

Testing policy crucial

Devising a comprehensive drugs and alcohol policy is crucial to the safety of a mine, Anchorage drug-testing company WorkSafe's general manager, Steve Mihalik, told the Spring Thaw group. "If safety is important, don't let the dollar be important," he said. "The average drug user costs the employer $7,000 a year." More people test positive for drugs or alcohol in construction and mining than any other industry. Nationwide, 14 percent of construction workers test positive; in Alaska the figure is 20-25 percent.

The way to refer an employee for a drug test without accusing them of being under the influence, and without lying about it being a random test, is to refer them to the company policy, Mihalik said. If the policy clearly states that anyone behaving suspiciously must be tested, then a supervisor can depersonalize the issue. A poorly worded policy allows employees to claim that they are being treated unfairly, or singled out. Every new employee should read the policy, and supervisors must be trained to apply and administer it.

Marijuana cannot be prescribed by a doctor in Alaska, only recommended, so companies should include a rule about medical marijuana in their policy, Mihalik said. A recent study showed that marijuana can restrict blood flow in the brain for up to 30 days, he added. Employees may also be impaired if they are hung over, even if they are not drunk, so the policy should state how many hours must pass after the consumption of alcohol before they return to work - "bottle to throttle" - and whether someone on call can drink alcohol.

The policy should say something about prescription medicine, Mihalik said. Companies should ask employees to let them know what prescription drugs they are taking and what the potential effects might be, if necessary bringing in the bottle, and providing a doctor's note to confirm that they need the drug. Supervisors should not ask why the employee is taking the drug, but if there is a risk of drowsiness or other side-effects, the employee may not be allowed to operate heavy machinery, for example, and should be assigned elsewhere.

The availability of prescription drugs on the Internet makes them easier to obtain than most illegal drugs, and the painkiller vicodin is now the second-most abused drug after marijuana. Standard tests do not include vicodin: "We got blindsided by it," Mihalik said. Oxycontin is another popular drug to abuse. A separate test for these synthetic opiates can be conducted by companies like WorkSafe on request for an additional $2 or $3 on top of the average $30 or $40 cost of a drug test.

Any time an injury or damage occurs there should be a drug test, even if it is something seemingly innocuous like a pulled muscle, Mihalik said, as employees using drugs make more mistakes. If someone fails a drug test and goes through an approved course of treatment, they may be eligible for rehire at the employer's discretion. If employees are concerned about supervisors using drugs, they should talk to more senior managers about it, and if a company takes safety seriously, the concerns will be listened to.