Identification of the Most Critical Health and Safety Hazard in the Lakhra Coal Field

Abstract

The frequent accidents in underground coal mines of the Lakhra Coal Field (LCF) have become a serious problem for coal mine owners, engineers and researchers. There are numerous hazards which cause frequent minor, major and fatal accidents to mine workers; since a list of hazards has not yet been developed in the LCF. This research is an attempt to identify the most critical health and safety hazard in the LCF by developing a list of hazards for future research. In order to identify the most critical hazard in the LCF, at least 28 coal mines of a coal mining company were remained under observation for five years from 2017 to 2022. The data related to mine accidents (fatal) was collected from the office of Inspectorate of Coal Mines (ICM), Hyderabad Pakistan. Total 254 accidents (minor, major and fatal) were occurred in 28 coal mines; since roof fall hazard was found the most critical hazard in the LCF, accounted for 59 injuries during 2017 and 2022. According to the office of ICM, 19 fatalities (56%) were occurred due to roof fall out of total 34 fatalities in the LCF during 2017 and 2022. Most of the roof fall occurred during mine advancement which could be attributed to various operations such as coal cutting (41%), roof ripping (20%) and repair work (22%). The presence of a sand bed above coal stratum in the stratigraphy was found to be a major cause of roof fall accidents, followed by the termite affected wooden supports used as a supporting system. Further study is required to investigate the effect of termite affected wooden supports on the safety of mine workers in underground coal mines.