Physiological Strain of Miners at Hot Working Places in German Coal Mines

Kalkowsky, Bernhard; Kampmann, Bernhard

doi:10.2486/indhealth.44.465

Cited by 56 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Moreover, these observations were unique at the time in Hungary and in some aspects we believe are still novel. These data are unique in the international literature as the information on the practical approaches using physiological measurements cover mainly experimental conditions [10,14] and very few are based on measurements under real working conditions [26][27][28], particularly in hot environment [29]. Ever since these early observations, we have used the same methodology in other industrial branches successfully (unpublished data).…”

Section: Impact Of the Illumination Level On Work-related Strainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physiological strain in the Hungarian mining industry: The impact of physical and psychological factors

Varga¹,

Zs.‐Nagy²,

Szirtes³

et al. 2016

Int J Occup Med Environ Health

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Objectives: The objectives of these investigations completed on workplaces in the Hungarian mining industry were to characterize the physiological strain of workers by means of work pulse and to examine the effects of work-related psychological factors. Material and Methods: Continuous heart rate (HR) recording was completed on 71 miners over a total of 794 shifts between 1987 and 1992 in mining plants of the Hungarian mining industry using a 6-channel recorder -Bioport (ZAK, Germany). The work processes were simultaneously documented by video recording along with drawing up the traditional ergonomic workday schedule. All workers passed health evaluation for fitness for work. The effects of different psychological factors (simulated danger, "instrument stress," presence of managers, and effect of prior involvement in accidents as well as different mining technologies and work place illumination) on the work pulse were evaluated. The statistical analysis was completed using SPSS software (version 13.0, SPSS Inc., USA). Results: The work-related physiological strain differed between work places with different mining technologies in groups of 12-18 workers. The work pulse was lowest in bauxite mining (∆HR = 22±8.9 bpm) and highest in drift drilling in dead rock with electric drilling machine (∆HR = 30±6.9 bpm). During sham alarm situation the work pulse was significantly higher than during normal activities with the same physical task (∆HR = 36.7±4.8 bpm vs. 25.8±1.6 bpm, p < 0.001). When work was performed under different psychological stress, the work pulse was consistently higher, while improving the work place illumination decreased the physiological strain appreciably (∆HR (median, 25-75 percentiles) = 23, 20-26 bmp vs. 28, 25-31.3 bpm, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Recording the heart rate during whole-shift work along with the work conditions gives reliable results and helps isolating factors that contribute to increased strain. The results can be used to implement preventive and health promotion measures. Apart from the physiological strain associated with heavy physical work and psychological stress, it is plausible that, due to dust exposure, work in the mines is likely to result in adverse respiratory effects. The coal miner's pneumoconiosis and silicosis are well-known, however, there was no similar effect on the lung function of miners in Australian bauxite mines [15]. The serum aluminum levels were also comparable to normal control subjects [16]. More importantly, however, in a similar geologic area in Hungary, Kovacs found that the thoron to radon concentration ratio was > 0.25, suggesting that there might be an increased health risk [17]. In a systematic screening for cardiovascular limitations by ergometry, we found that the limitations occur roughly twice as often among uranium miners [18] and in coal miners [19] compared to the reference population. This suggests that heavy physical work itself might present increased risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. In underground mining, the heavy ph...

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Section: Impact Of the Illumination Level On Work-related Strainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physiological strain in the Hungarian mining industry: The impact of physical and psychological factors

Varga¹,

Zs.‐Nagy²,

Szirtes³

et al. 2016

Int J Occup Med Environ Health

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“…As these industrial sites tend to be located in remote areas exposed to hot and sometimes humid conditions, the exposure of more personnel to extreme environmental conditions is inevitable. For example, miners have experienced WBGT exposures of 29.1°C to 31.5°C [10,11] and a Basic Effective Temperature ranging between 26.6°C and 29.4°C [12]. Within the mining industry, particularly underground mining, the geothermal gradient contributes to ambient heat.…”

Section: Ambient Working Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Warming and Heat Stress Among Western Australian Mine, Oil and Gas Workers

Mate¹,

Oosthuizen²

2012

Environmental Health - Emerging Issues and Practice

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“…and the accumulated heat dissipation from the rib, roof and the floor to the air flow. As far as we know, experimental studies in laboratory on evaluating heat stress in the working face of hot coal mines are rare, which is mainly on simulating a steady thermal condition [9], since it is of great difficulty in setting up a quite similar variable thermal condition (cool-hot changing along the working face) in the laboratory, and the field measurement work is relatively scarce as it is quite hard to measure and acquire accurate miners' physiological response data on site [2]. In the past decades, heat stress indices, and mathematical thermoregulation models have been becoming popular to investigate heat strain problems of miners [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Heat stress issues have been addressed in the mining industry of many countries like South Africa, Germany, India, Australia, the United States and Canada for the past decades [1][2][3][4]. In recent years, with the increasing mining depths and the improving mining mechanization, mine hazards, particularly mine fire and heat hazards have been becoming more frequent and serious in underground coal mines in China [5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heat stress evaluation at the working face in hot coal mines using an improved thermos physiological model

Wu¹,

Fu²,

Tong³

et al. 2017

IJHT

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With the increasing mining depths and the improving mining mechanization, coal miners in China have been exposed to increasingly hotter working conditions, especially in the working face where heat hazards are of high possibility. In this paper, a multi-segment thermos physiological model with an improvement in heat and moisture transfer through clothing was used to evaluate heat stress at the working face in hot coal mines. The improved thermos physiological model was firstly demonstrated with miners' thermal response data collected by field measurements, and then parametric simulations were done to evaluate the physiological influences of the relative humidity and the unsteady (cool-hot changing) air temperature along the working face. It is found that the cool-hot changing thermal environments significantly affect miners' physiological responses and thermal sensations, especially the air temperature changes around 24 o C~26 o C, and the heat stress can be relieved if a proper work-rest organization in a hot working face is addressed

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Physiological Strain of Miners at Hot Working Places in German Coal Mines

Cited by 56 publications

References 5 publications

Physiological strain in the Hungarian mining industry: The impact of physical and psychological factors

Physiological strain in the Hungarian mining industry: The impact of physical and psychological factors

Global Warming and Heat Stress Among Western Australian Mine, Oil and Gas Workers

Heat stress evaluation at the working face in hot coal mines using an improved thermos physiological model

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