ABSTRACT
Physical environment and climate Section 6.1 co-written with Robert Randolph NIOSH, USA
Section 6.2 co-written with James Rider NIOSH, USA
Section 6.3 co-written with Janet Torma-Krajewski Colorado School of Mines, USA
Section 6.4 co-written with Tammy Eger Laurentian University, Canada
As mentioned earlier, the mining environment is a challenging one where workers are exposed to many factors characteristic of a dynamic and hazardous workplace. In such a dynamic work environment, the physical attributes of the workplace change throughout the workday. In the case of mining, these workplace changes coincide with the production of materials, that is, the environment changes as more materials are removed and a new environment is revealed. This environment can be unpredictable, uncontrollable, and unexpected (Steiner, 1999; Sharf et al., 2001). Designing equipment and workplaces in this environment can therefore be difcult. This chapter provides basic concepts to detect and design for the deciencies in the mining environment involving noise and hearing, dust, heat and cold stress, and whole-body vibration. Chapter 7 then continues this by introducing basic concepts in vision and lighting to design for visual deciencies in mining. For both of these chapters, each factor is described in terms of how the worker is affected by it, what aspects of mining present these factors, how to measure it, and how to reduce any potential impact of these factors.
