https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4192-474X
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Abstract
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.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the many mining associations and companies that supported promoting this study. The present study results do not constitute an endorsement by the associations or companies participating. We would also like to thank Dr. Stephen Hardcastle for his support of this work.
Author contributions
All persons designated as authors meet the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship, and all those who qualify are listed. All authors had full access to and accepted responsibility for the data presented in the study. E.J.T. and G.P.K. conceived the research question. E.J.T. and G.P.K. designed the study. E.J.T. collected the data. E.J.T., F.O., and R.D.M. analyzed the data. R.D.M. created the data visualizations. E.J.T. drafted the manuscript. All authors revised the manuscript for important intellectual content.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).