Coal Age

JAN-FEB 2018

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January/February 2018 www.coalage.com 31 safety training continued sponses reflected how confident each min- er is in his or her ability to correctly perform or explain these tasks to a new miner under normal, non-threatening conditions. This, along with other issues related to collecting self-reported data (e.g., potential concerns about confidentiality of answers and over- rating of self-confidence), suggest these results could actually be viewed as "best- case scenario" estimates of confidence. This could signify that results might, in fact, overestimate levels of self-escape compe- tency among this sample of mineworkers. Importantly, it might not be realistic to expect that every mineworker be 100% confident in each and every self-escape task included on the survey. However, these results provide a clear indication that min- ers lack confidence in their own self-escape capabilities in multiple areas, and that there is significant room for improvement. After receiving results representing their miners, individual mine operators and safety managers were able to tailor their training to better address the gaps in KSA confidence. Although the overall study results may not be generalizable to the underground mining population at large, these results (See Figue 1) can help to give mine operators, safety managers and indi- vidual miners everywhere an idea of where gaps in self-escape KSAs might exist. Improving Critical Self-escape KSAs in Miners: What You Can Do Now Despite the gaps in critical self-escape KSAs reported here, the good news is that every mine can immediately begin working on increasing worker proficiency in the "basic" knowledge critical to self-escape, including: • Where the mine's SCSR caches are located. • Where the mine's escapeway maps are located. • Where to report in the event of a mine emergency. • Where the mine's refuge alternatives are located. • Where the mine's tether lines are located. • The chain of command for reporting a mine emergency. • The location of the mine's primary and secondary escapeways. This critical knowledge can be easily and briefly covered every shift or periodical- ly, as the working sections move, as part of the crew pre-shift meetings or via informal "quizzes" or "spot checks" during the work- day. These brief exercises can also serve to increase proficiency in map reading and the correct identification of mine map symbols. Gaps in KSAs that require procedural skill are being further studied by NIOSH in an effort to develop evidence-based training recommendations for mine operators and safety trainers for dissemination in 2019. In the interim, Table 1 outlines currently avail- able resource materials for critical KSAs, in- cluding a number of available training aids. As NIOSH continues to research self- escape preparedness, these results serve as a reminder of how important it is for mines to continuously review training materials assess the KSAs of their workforce. Defin- ing and developing critical competencies will help to ensure mineworker readiness to avert potential tragedies. For more information, contact mining@cdc.gov. Disclaimer The findings and conclusions in this paper are those of the authors and do not neces- sarily represent the views of NIOSH. Men- tion of any company or product does not constitute endorsement by NIOSH. Figure 1—Percentage of mineworkers out of 895 surveyed who are not fully confident in their ability to correctly demonstrate or explain critical self-escape knowledge, skills and abilities.

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