A Study of the Workload of Underground Trammers in the Ranigang Coal Field Area of West Bengal, India

Journal of Institute of Medicine

2011

Introduction: Occupational disorders invite absenteeism amongst the miners. Though rapid technological advancement has happened, yet assessment of cardiac workload was largely ignored in underground coal mines in India. Methods: Physiological stress was evaluated in terms of working heart rate, net cardiac cost and relative cardiac cost. Heart rate was measured during their course of work by heart rate monitor at the coal face. Recovery heart rates and environmental heat load were also assessed. Results: Heart rate was found to be 117 and 122 beats/min respectively in first and second spell. NCC (49.7 and 54.8 beats /min) and RCC (47% and 52%) exhibit significant variations between spells, whereas rate of recovery had been very poor amongst the workers who regularly exceeded recommended levels of cardiac strain indices. The nature of work depicted it as a heavy job although recovery trend categorizes it heavier than that. ET and WBGT were above the recommended limits as per the guidelines of WHO and ACGIH. Conclusions: High physiological demand of the job with towering heat stress was found to hinder the recovery process and may cause deleterious impacts on the workers. Ergonomic interventions were highly felt towards job organization and up gradation of environmental conditions.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 48%

Cardiac workload of dressers in underground manual coal mines

Saha

Samanta

Journal of Institute of Medicine

2011

“…A comparison with overseas results indicates that drillers in the present study had higher heart rates than those of Bulgarian open cast blasters, diggers and drillers (100-110 beats/min) engaged in extra repair activities 14) , Spanish underground coal face miners (103-106.5 beats/ min) 15) , Australian miners (101-103 beats/min) 9) and Indian underground coal mine trammers (102-105 beats/ min) 16) , but lower heart rates than native underground coal shovellers (130-138 beats/min) 17) . The peak values found in the older group (139 beats/min) and the younger group (135 and 145 beats/min) in both the spells (Figs.…”

Section: Comparative Aspects With Other Mining and Non-mining Occupatsupporting

confidence: 43%

A Comparison of Cardiac Strain among Drillers of Two Different Age Groups in Underground Manual Coal Mines in India

Saha

Journal of Occupational Health

Samanta

et al. 2008

Self Cite

A Comparison of Cardiac Strain among D r i l l e r s o f Tw o D i f f e r e n t A g e G r o u p s i n Underground Manual Coal Mines in India:Ratnadeep SAHA, et al. Department of Physiology, Universal College of Medical Sciences, NepalCardiac strain was evaluated in terms of working heart rate (WHR), relative cardiac cost (RCC), net cardiac cost (NCC) and other recovery indices among six younger (mean age 34.2 ± 2.7 yr) and sixteen older (mean age 48.9 ± 5.4 yr) drillers working in a manual underground coal mine over two spells of work. The mean WHR was within the range of 117-132 beats / min with corresponding mean relative cardiac cost between 44-48% of heart rate reserve for the younger group and 53-55% for their older counterparts. The mean NCC was above 50 beats/min for both age groups. It was seen that the workers surpassed the recommended limits of cardiac strain indices. The intensity of workload indicates the job to be "heavy" to "extremely heavy" in accordance with the heaviness scales based on WHR, NCC and recovery heart rates. Heat stress prevailing in the workplace in terms of effective temperature (ET) and wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), was above the recommended limits as per the guidelines proposed by WHO and ACGIH. High physiological demands of the job which requires predominate static muscular exertions coupled with high heat stress were found to hinder the recovery process and may prove deleterious particularly for the older workers. Therefore, in the present context, the need of ergonomic interventions for job organization and quick reparation of environmental condition are strongly indicted. (J Occup Health 2008; 50: 512-520) Field Study

“…humidity and high temperature are important and currently under research prerogative of many scientists. Meanwhile, different research studies have been documented some adverse effect of working environment on miner's cardiac and physiological stress (Dey et al, 2006, Dey et al, 2014. Not in India only, the same is also found in abroad countries (Hull et al, 1996), where high temperature and excessive humidity is found important thermal stress factors in underground mines.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective utilization of man shift through sustainable workload testing for underground mining machine operators. An ergonomic based man-machine interface approach

New Trends in Production Engineering

2019

Self Cite

Insight of man-machine interfaces during mining machine operations, better co-ordinance with human efficiencies and suitable workload selection in underground mining machine operation are the main viewpoints of the study. Total 12 side discharge loader (SDL) and load haul dumper (LHD) operators [N = 12] have been taken as participants of the study. The methodology is divided into two parts first part is devoted to measuring and analyzing workload response of machine operation with polar heart rate monitor. Machine operator’s heart rate ratio (HR ratio) for the whole shift is recorded and metabolic rate (MR) has been analyzed. Additionally, fatigue sustainability (FS) and degradation of muscle force (MF) are recorded for each work cycles up to exposure time period (ETP) of 360 minutes. In the second part of the methodology, based on the HR ratio recorded during the mining operation, a workload simulation study is undertaken on a treadmill at the surface following BRUCE protocol. At treadmill, based on HR ratio, workload achieved from mines along with three different workloads i.e. low, moderate and high has been tested. Differences in FS and degradation rate of MF after each workload experiment have been recorded. A result from the underground operational study shows that there is about 43.2% and 32.4% of decreasing MF for SDL and LHD operators after end of spells at mines. Additionally, a negative correlation (r = −0.99) is found between ETP and MF. The workload simulation study shows that there are significant differences between FS (p < 0.05) and MF (p < 0.05) data of mining and treadmill experiment with the same workload. In comparison to an underground operation, FS rate of low, moderate and high workload is recorded 60%, 35%, and 15% higher respectively than of mine workload. Higher FS rate may achieve due to availability of good environment. Among the tested workload only low kind of workload is found suitable for mining machinery job as degradation of MF is found significantly (p < 0.05) low and FS is found significantly (p < 0.01) high in this kind of workload. Therefore, it can be concluded that in mining machinery operation better to adopt low workload for effective utilization of man shift (EUMS) as it gives comparatively low MF degradation and better FS during continuous work.