An exploratory survey of on-site heat stress management practices in the Canadian mining industry.
With climate change fueling more frequent and intense periods of hot weather, heat stress management programs are becoming increasingly important for protecting the health and safety of workers in the Canadian mining industry. While the inclusion of heat-mitigation measures such as those provided by...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Occupational & Environmental Hygiene Vol. 21; no. 6; pp. 409 - 423 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
May/Jun2024
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=177713808&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 177713808 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 15459624 V1L jtl: Journal of Occupational & Environmental Hygiene issn: 15459624 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: May/Jun2024 vid: 21 iid: 6 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania artinfo: ui: 177713808 177102343 177713808 177713808 10.1080/15459624.2024.2332722 177713808 ppf: 409 ppct: 14 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P tig: atl: An exploratory survey of on-site heat stress management practices in the Canadian mining industry. aug: au: Tetzlaff, Emily J. O'Connor, Fergus K. Meade, Robert D. Kenny, Glen P. affil: Human and Environmental Physiology Research Unit, School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada sug: subj: Heat Stress Disorders Prevention and Control Work Environment Occupational Health Mining Canada Blue Collar Workers Psychosocial Factors Occupational Hazards Human Male Female Exploratory Research Canada Questionnaires Occupational Exposure Environmental Monitoring Occupational Diseases Workforce Descriptive Statistics Funding Source Adult Middle Age Adult: 19-44 years Middle Aged: 45-64 years Male Female ab: With climate change fueling more frequent and intense periods of hot weather, heat stress management programs are becoming increasingly important for protecting the health and safety of workers in the Canadian mining industry. While the inclusion of heat-mitigation measures such as those provided by the American College of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Values (TLVs) are commonly employed by industry, there is a need to develop more comprehensive industry-specific measures for heat stress prevention and management. To better understand current heat management practices and identify opportunities for improvement, an exploratory survey of 51 employees responsible for health and safety at underground mining (n = 35), and surface operations (n = 16) (e.g., open-pit mining, milling, smelting, and exploration site) was conducted in Canada. The respondents answered 50 questions related to workplace heat stress management, including descriptors of the workplace environment, perceived heat stress hazard, administration of heat stress management programming, heat stress emergency procedures, environmental monitoring strategies, and knowledge of mining-specific regulations related to heat stress. Twenty-four managers (47%) reported that heat-related illnesses led to restricted duty or lost time claims at their site, with a median of 5 [IQR: 2–10, max: 30] reportable heat-related illnesses occurring per site annually. Many also felt that heat-related illnesses are under-reported by their workforce (n = 36, 71%). Most sites reported established heat stress management programs to prevent heat illness (n = 43, 84%), typically based on the TLVs (n = 38, 75%). Although some organizations do conduct pre-task evaluations for heat stress (n = 30, 59%), more than half do not conduct post-job evaluations (n = 28, 55%) or pre-employment screening for heat stress vulnerability (n = 3, 6%). While our findings indicate that the health and safety managers recognize the hazard posed by heat and have stated practices to help address the hazard, we also observed inconsistencies in heat stress management programming across the sample. Developing and adopting a standard heat stress management and reporting system would be an important step toward protecting workers from existing and emerging threats from extreme heat and climate change. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Unknown language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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