Operation complexity as one of the injury factors of coal miners

Abstract

Purpose is to identify regularities of miners’ injuries in the process of manufacturing operations based upon assessment of labour conditions in terms of energy intensity of a body. Methods. Analysis of the basic manufacturing operations, monitoring of a working process and functional conditions of bodies of miners, involving methods of mathematical statistics, determined the probability of injury of miners according to the value of their energy losses. Findings. It has been proved that to avoid potentially hazardous situation it is required to take into consideration energy cost of the performed operations which should correspond to psychophysical potential of miners. Conditional boundary of difficult continuous restless activities has been identified. It is 290 W being the upper boundary of energy losses. If the difficulty index is more than 290 W then the probability of injury of miners is 74%. If the index is 290 up to 464 W then the probability is 60%. Originality. A relationship between injury level of miners and difficulty of the performed operations has been identified; the relationship is assessed with the help of energy losses by their bodies. Methods to analyze accidents in terms of their situational patterns have been proposed. The methods rely upon a workplace analysis as well as activities before an adverse event and labour conditions in terms of energy losses by victims. Practical implications. Methods to identify difficulty of labour of miners and duration of compensatory breaks during work performance have been developed. The methods may be quite useful while investigating accidents, assessing labour conditions of miners, and technical documenting. Moreover, they are necessary for the development of measures making labour of miners safe.