Coal Age

JAN-FEB 2017

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36 www.coalage.com January-February 2017 health & safety continued understand the importance of location in- formation for both equipment and people. When Do Miners Need the Critical Information? Examining how frequently miners prefer to receive critical health and safety infor- mation compared to how frequently they are currently receiving it can reveal other possible knowledge gaps. The mining en- vironment is constantly changing (Scharf et al., 2001). Health and safety informa- tion should be updated accordingly so that miners can maintain their situation- al awareness as the environment, people and equipment change. Furthermore, for effective learning, immediate feedback better facilitates learning and retention (Epstein et al., 2002). Wherever possible, critical information should be updated and available on a regular basis. The min- ers surveyed appeared to understand the need for continuous monitoring of mine gases, and given the maturity of this tech- nology, there was not a significant differ- ence between when they currently receive and would prefer to receive this informa- tion (Figure 2). Previous NIOSH research found that miners using the CPDM saw the value in continuous dust readings to help them identify activities related to higher dust ex- posure (Peters et al., 2007). The real-time feedback of the CPDM helped the miners more easily associate high dust exposure with specific actions. For example, miners reported that they changed where they stood to reduce their dust exposure (Peters et al., 2007). However, the survey respons- es here, as displayed in Figure 2, indicate many miners are not currently receiving and do not prefer to receive dust exposure Figure 3—Percentage response rates for current and ideal monitoring ability and responsibility for gas and dust. Figure 2—Percentage response rates of miner's timing preferences for gas, dust and equipment location information.

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