Digitization is increasingly modifying all process levels in the raw material industry, starting from processes, in which the interaction between man and machine is becoming increasingly important to the management section. Despite the technological advances, the rate of accidents between vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-human has increased in the past few years. This drastic increase is due to a number of factors, ...
Read More »ISSA Mining
Playing Dangerously with Fire
The protective devices of a machine are intended to protect the persons working there from hazards. Nevertheless, these devices are repeatedly dismantled, bypassed or otherwise rendered inoperative. Occupational safety experts assume that around a quarter of all occupational accidents on stationary machines occur solely because of this. The German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV), Berlin, provides information and asks for assistance ...
Read More »Do You Actually Know … the BAUZ Info Cards?
Many tasks in the company are actually pure routine. Things like the regular inspection of work equipment, cleaning work on machines and systems or the use of forklift trucks are part of everyday work. To ensure that daily work is carried out safely and smoothly and that accidents do not result from carelessness, ignorance, convenience or time pressure, the German ...
Read More »New Contaminant Exposure Limits – and the Challenges this Poses for Taking Dust Measurements at the Workplace
Significantly lower air contamination thresholds have not only meant greater responsibility for employers in assessing the potential release of hazardous substances as part of the risk analysis and the health and safety documentation process but have also introduced higher standards for estimating exposure levels. One problem is that the performance limits of the measurement and analysis equipment make it difficult ...
Read More »Basic Principles of Explosion Protection
While explosions are fortunately quite rare, if they do happen the consequences are usually serious – explosions are among the five most frequent causes of fatal accidents. It is therefore extremely important to prevent their occurrence and, if that is not possible, at least to limit their impact and contain their spread. 1 How does an explosion occur? The four ...
Read More »Mine Rescue Services in Germany after the End of Hard Coal Mining
With the decline in domestic hard coal production and its termination at the end of 2018, and the subsequent transition to post-mining, the number of mine rescuers in this mining branch has dropped from almost 1,000 around ten years ago to fewer than 300 in 2020. In the German non-coal mining sector, the reduction in numbers has been less pronounced ...
Read More »Milestone Set – Gap Closed
Many member companies of the German Social Accident Insurance Institution for the Raw Materials and Chemical Industry (BG RCI) with its headquarter in Heidelberg use processing machinery and plants for raw materials, from crushing, milling and screening of raw material in quarries to the recycling of construction material (Figure 1). Serious, sometimes fatal, accidents are a recurring issue in, and ...
Read More »Elimination of Cyclone Blockages in a Cement Works – Reaching Effective Protective Measures with a Risk Assessment
The work required for the elimination of cyclone blockages is among the most dangerous in the process of cement production. Based on the example presented here, the risk and stress assessments that are at the centre of all occupational safety measures are explained step by step. Particular attention is thereby paid to the assessment of the residual risk, which nevertheless ...
Read More »All Good Things Come in Fours // The Effort Has Been Well Worth While // Legal Certainty for Blasting Operations // All-Time Low in Workplace Accidents
By the second half of 2020 the German Social Accident Insurance Institution for the Raw Materials and Chemical Industry (BG RCI), Heidelberg/Germany, was again endowing companies with its Systematic Safety seal of approval, the recipients being the cement and concrete producers Schwenk Beton Nordost GmbH & Co. KG, Rostock, and the Edelsplitt- und Rheinkieswerk Helmlingen GmbH & Co. KG, Rheinau/Germany. ...
Read More »Assessment of Working Conditions at Mining-Metallurgical Enterprises
In this paper, a comprehensive assessment of the psycho-physiological state of coke production workers within real production scenarios regarding mining enterprises was completed. The objects of research have been workers of the coke-chemical production ArcelorMittal Temirtau in Kazakhstan. To define preventive measures, the criteria to identify risk groups and loss of efficiency were calculated and a prediction model for the ...
Read More »