Mining Industry Noise Pollution: Safety and Risk Management Strategies

This presentation examines the critical issue of noise pollution within the mining industry, a significant occupational hazard impacting worker health and safety. It provides background information on noise pollution's adverse effects, including hearing loss, reduced concentration, and increased fatigue, referencing relevant studies and regulations like AS/NZS 1269.1. The presentation analyzes current safety measures, such as engineering controls, personal protective equipment (PPE), and legislative requirements, evaluating their effectiveness and identifying shortcomings. It proposes comprehensive strategies for mitigating noise risks, including improved engineering designs, employee training, and stakeholder involvement, emphasizing the roles of managers, contractors, and government bodies. The presentation underscores the importance of monitoring personal noise exposure and outlines effective methods for reducing noise levels, ensuring compliance with safety standards. References are provided in APA format.

Safety and Risk
Management
Presented By:

Introduction
 Noise pollution is referred as
disturbance sound that which can
led to hearing impairment, work
inefficiency, distractions, and/or
accidents.
 With major mines in Australia
being constructed around
populated area, they have
significant impact on the health
concerns of the public due to the
increase in noise concerns and
loss of hearing of young age
population (Morrice and
Colagiuri, 2013).

Effect of Occupational Noise Pollution on
Workers
 Noise is characterized to have many negative effects on workers,
this includes;
 Poor performance rate due to a lowering of concentration,
 Increased fatigue due to the long exposure of noise,
 Work interference due to the poor communication,
 And, increase in health cases of impaired hearing (Pokhrel &
Dubey, 2013).

Measuring Noise Exposure
 Effective determination of noise exposure can be mainly achieved
through the occupational noise management procedure in AS/NZS
1269.1,
 Generally, measuring noise exposure is done to determine
approaches of handling noise which could led to health issues of
workers and the public (Dontala, Reddy, & Vadde, 2015).
 In order to be compliance with the specified regulations, personal
hearing protectors which workers may be wearing during the
calculation of the noise should not be taken into consideration.

Action Level for Noise
 Normally, when people are exposed to determined noise there are
various actions that should be taken.
 The average noise is determined to about 85 dB(A) where the
maximum peak noise is about 140 dB(lin) (Morrice and Colagiuri,
2013).
 For an average noise, the maximum working hours a day are
approximately 8 hours i.e. the worker’s exposure should remain at
(LAeq,8h).
 With this guides, any company or mining management is expected
to adopt strategies of limiting noise exposure below the average
limit.

Legislative and Regulatory Requirements
 One of the requirement of the Mine Safety and Inspection Regulation is
the general application of engineering procedures to curb hazardous
issues.
 However, in the event where the elimination of noise is impartibly
impossible, safety gears should be applied (Shen, Muduli, & Barve,
2015).
 Safety gears are not considered as possible solutions to noise while they
are just for short period of time before engineering solution are
identified in minimizing noise in the mining grounds.

Duty of care
 Under the Mines Safety and Inspection Act 1994, It should a duty care of
the employer to provide a healthy and safe working environment for all
the workers.
 In respect to our main topic, some of the measurement include minimal
noise exposure and provision of safety gears.
 Under section 12 of the Act, employers also have responsibility of
ensuring that they are also safe from any hazardous exposure.
 All this applications should be reviewed and accepted by the safety
committee (Shen et al., 2015).

Workers’ Compensation and Injury
Management Act 1981
 Employers must have a planned specification of how they can be
able to compensate their employees in the event of any undesired
incident (Pokhrel & Dubey, 2013).
 According to the act, it’s the responsibility of the employer to
also insure the employee against all possible harm that may arise
in the nature of their daily work.

Effectiveness of Control Measures
 The effectiveness of the control noise measures can be considered
as very poor where most mines have continued to operate
population settlements.
 Moolarben Coal, located 45 km north-east of Mudgee, is good
example of the poor control measures where despite the complaints
of community member noise disturbance still no possible actions
seem to be taken (Brueckner, Durey, Pforr, & Mayes, 2014).
 On the same note, if people living 45 km away from the site are
affected, then it means workers in the site significantly affected.

Continuation
 The issue of mining companies working in same area is also
another issue that shown failure in the control of noise from both
the workers and the entire Australian public. An example of a
such scenario is also seen at Moolarben coal.
 On the other hand, Australia and New Zealand are one of highest
compensating countries which also shows that the law
enforcement has played a significant role in minimizing noise
effects.

Managing Noise
 The main action plan in managing noise is minimizing its effects as low as
possible even if its below the average limit.
 The determination of noise seriousness is carried through the investigation of
operational and technical feasibility (Nemerow, Agardy, & Salvato, 2009).
 If both variable indicate to be feasible, then the evaluation of cost should
undertaken to also analyze the feasibility aspect.
 Some of the cost-effectiveness measure that are normally carried out before
strategic solution is provided include shielding or isolation.

Role of Managers and Contractors
 It’s the general duty of mine managements and contractors to
identify; all the possible noise characteristics in the site,
 Suitable materials and mining technique with minimum noise
issues,
 Strategies of isolating major possible noise sources,
 Implementation of new engineering designs to reduce noise
challenges (Brueckner et al., 2014).
 Programs that will help to assess noise impact in correlation to
the already existing noise.
 Measures of dealing with unexpected outcome of events in
controlling noise pollution.