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Weekly UpdatesIt requires a broad range of health and safety guidelines and regimes to bring each mining company worker home safety and it only seems fitting to bring new ideas to the fore where the men will hear them.
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The topic of guarding was a sensitive issue because of the accidents that have occurred in mines, said Paul Vandergeest of Belt Conveyor Guarding at the 2009 Mining Health and Safety Conference, held in Sudbury at the Holiday Inn.
"The rules are all there but now the enforcement is coming in ...," and now companies are "trying to get on board."
His presence at the conference was to educate the industry and demonstrate his new guarding conveyor belt system.
"There is a need for better guarding on the conveying systems for workers in the mines of Northern Ontario," Vandergeest said whose modular system allows workers to get on and off with ease.
It conforms to all the ministry standards and can fit any conveyor belt, he said.
"You can go with three sizes and that generally covers most of your conveyors."
The Barrie-area based conveyor guarding company has worked with many of Northern Ontario's big industrial players; Vale Inco, Essar Steel and Lafarge.
Mallorie Leduc, a first year human kinetics graduate student at Laurentian University, also took centre stage at the MASHA conference to deliver her thesis project, "Examination of vibration characteristics and benefits of 'anti-vibration' mats for workers exposed to vibration via the feet."
"The current body of vibration literature lacks understanding with regards to vibration that enters a worker via their feet," Leduc said.
"The majority of the research to date has focused on whole-body vibration, seated posture and hand-arm vibration while using handtools."
Leduc's presentation gave a review of existing issues, and she discussed possible solutions, including anti-vibrating matting.
The goal of her research is to learn more about the impacts of vibration entering through the feet to hopefully identify potential health and injury risks and intervention strategies.
"We know that there are health risks associated with vibration exposure, so we need to look at all situations, like standing, where workers are exposed," she said.
Leduc has begun the field testing portion of her research at some Northern Ontario mines.
www.masha.on.ca
www.conveyorguarding.com
By JAMES NEELEY
Northern Ontario Business
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