Risk Assessment of Accidents for the Mining Industries - Research Proposal Assessment Answers

Risk Assessment of Accidents for the Mining Industries

ResearchBrief:

1. page of objectives, justificationofresearch,and intendedapproach

2. ResearchProposal:

   10 pages of itemisedproposalincludingResearchBriefand specificresearch question(s), literature review(not much), theoreticalframework,critical appraisal techniques, methodology, references.

1.1 Introduction

Risk assessment for accidents in mining industries is important to help reduce hazards to which miners are vulnerable. The major concerns of occupational hazards include significant health, safety and environmental risks common in mining operation. Unsafe practices and conditions in mining result to several accidents causing injury and loss to human life apart from property damage, production interruption etcetera (Ellena, 2005). Since the hazards cannot be obliterated completely, it is important to define the probable risks and the level of the risks in a qualitative and quantitative way.

It is therefore recommended that the concerned parties conduct an environmental risk assessment that involves evaluating risks that result from natural occurrences such as flooding, earthquakes, extreme weather patterns, wild fire etcetera (CARE 2005). Risks can be majorly categorized into three namely natural hazards, environmental hazards and technological hazards. Technological hazards include events like technical mishaps, engine failures, machine faults, involving processes, practices and product. Environmental risks include hazards like chemical, radiation, biological calamities , wild fires among others. In the mining industry, all forms of hazards are possible and it is therefore important to carry out assessment on environmental health risks ]in regard to human health safety, animals, and eco systems concerns. An assessment on ecological risks concerns organisms and environmental media, and this is a predominant scientific activity, which is involving a critical available data review to identify and quantify risks in relation to potential threats. This paper looks at risk assessment in mining industry by presenting a brief literature review, critical appraisal techniques, justification of the research, methodology and concludes by giving recommendations on assessment and risk reduction in the mining industry.

1.2 Objectives, JustificationofResearch,and IntendedApproach

The research question is how to conduct risk assessment for accidents in mining industries and develop a good safety health policy to meet objective of workers.

1.2.1 Objectives

The research aims to develop a safety health policy to minimize accidents in the mining industry with the following objectives.

• Promotion of occupational safety health in mining industries by developing healthier and safer working ways.
• Promoting safety health policies that are compliant with national safety laws.
• Investigating and identifying unsafe work condition that may cause accidents, analyze and recommend solutions.
• Developing a plan than is inclusive of all workers for participation in the mining industries.
• Regular evaluation and updating poof the occupational safety health policy system strategies.

The research study will employ the ABC (Antecedent, Behavior and Consequence analysis) in developing a safety health policy for mining industries as its intended technique.

1.2.2 Justificationofresearch

This research is important because it points out on how many organizations in the mining industry can effectively prepare emergency and disaster preparedness and response plan to mitigate work related Hazards (Ellena, 2010). The mining industry is an occupation with high workers’ vulnerability to hazards, incidents, injuries, ill health, diseases and even deaths. It is therefore important that appropriate procedure are taken by management to involve employees in a participative occupational safety health policy formulation. The safety policy should take into account the behavioral based safety (BBS) approach and the safety management system approach integrated together to form the Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS) for mining workers with a view to mitigating and minimizing work related risks and hazards (Jansen & Brent, 2005). In this regard, the research paper encourages that behavior based approach considers the ABC analysis technique of behavior which holds that antecedents and consequences influence behavior. Consequences should the quick/soon, certain/sure and positive so that they have greater impact on behavior for change.

1.3 Literature Review/Theoretical framework

To improve safety of miners, and the works at the mining industry in general, disaster and emergency preparedness plan ought to be developed. The emergency plans should be a model of integrated safety management system that incorporates behavior based safety strategy. Standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO) require that mining industries develop a voluntary safety management system guideline with a view to safeguarding hazards on mining workers (Jansen & Brent, 2005). The same guideline should aim to eliminate work based injuries, incidents, diseases, ill health and deaths. Developing policies on occupational safety and Health would offer direction on making decisions in a formal safety management system. It is important to involve workers in the occupational safety and health process of decision making by defining necessary competence requirements and making arrangements for ensuring and maintaining the standards for all persons to meet the required competence level for safety and health in their duties and responsibilities. Mining industries and concerned organizations ought to ensure that occupational safety and health objectives are measurable and consistent with the policy and relevant with the national laws together with the business and technical obligations of the subject organization.

Risks and hazards probable to the workers safety and health should be identified and assessed continuously so that protective and preventive measures are implemented in order of priority as below. The first step towards risk assessment is to identify critical behaviors and risk scenarios, the second step is to identify the root cause of the identified risk behaviors and scenarios (Jansen & Brent, 2005). A potential action plan should be developed/generated afterwards, and possible action plans evaluated. The next step is to develop the most optimal action plan followed by outlining the items of its implementation and finally simulating the workability of the action plan for problem solving in a created risk scenario. If the testing part of the action plan proves positive and workable, the plan should be adopted for implementation but it should be redesigned if it does not work at the testing part.

Goodman Fielder reported from an interview with Angela who was the Australian Safety health and Education manager and trainer in 2013, that working for mining industries is about working in and living in remote areas most of the time in Western Australia that may take up to five years. A safety manager requires good writing and presentation skills to be capable of analyzing and interpreting abstract scenarios (Miningcareers, 2016). The Australian government through the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) established a Minerals Tertiary Education Council (MTEC) to offer quality undergraduate and graduate courses in mining. A health and safety manager de sign and coordinate safety system strategies by identifying probable workplace hazards, assess employee health risks and recommend solution (Miningcareers, 2016).

1.4 Critical Appraisal Techniques

Risk assessment in mining industry requires development of an occupational safety health policy that involves workers to achieve behavior based safety (Jansen & Brent, 2005). Below are a number of techniques to be used in critical appraisal of risk assessment.

1.4.1 Risk/Hazard Elimination

The hazard and risk should be controlled at the source by utilizing organizational measures or engineering controls established to mitigate and or minimize the risks (CARE, 2005). The mining organizations ought to design safe work plans that involve administrative measures of control. In the event that the organization cannot adequately control residual risks and hazards, there should be collective approach with the mining industry employer providing for the right personal protective equipment with measures being implemented to ensure the equipment is put into use and properly maintained. There should be an evaluation on the impact of internal changes on the occupational safety health especially on those at the staffing department or changes due to work procedures as well as external changes resulting from changes in the national laws or emerging technology. An appropriate step for prevention should be taken to mitigate the risks before the changes are introduced by developing a disaster and emergency preparedness, prevention and response plan.

There should be well developed procedures of procurement that are compliant with safety and health standards, and it should be integrated into the specifications of purchasing and leasing after a proper evaluation (Jansen & Brent, 2005). Contractors and workers should be considered by making procedural arrangements that regulate the conduct of the same in regard to occupational safety and health in the mining industry. After the occupational safety health record policy plan is developed, it should be regularly monitored to measure and note its performance so that it is reviewed periodically for upgrading to meet the set objectives in case of need. In effective mining occupational safety health assessment, the underlying causes and origin of work related accidents, diseases, ill-health and incidents ought to help in the identification of faults in the occupational safety health management system plan. Action should be taken to correct the noted failures after investigations, to avoid reoccurrence of such incidents.

1.4.2 Behavior Based Safety

Behavior based safety use of analysis methods for applied behavior to attain improved safety performance. In order to attain long-term continuous performance in safety, the behavior analysis methods ought to be paired with meaningful involvement of employees. Focusing on behavior is important because behavior is the critical pathway bringing together other factors through adverse results during the occurrence of an incident (Ellena, 2010). Therefore, it is important to conduct continuous up streaming measurements of critical behavior at risk that give the most relevant indicators of safety at the workplace. At risk behavior are the practices within an organization that are often necessarily related to management and organizational safety policy systems.

The indicators are that the higher the number of at-risk behaviors within an organization depict a high probability of vulnerability of people to hazards and injuries. The behavior based safety approach is thus a method of improving safety of mining workers and other people through a change in culture and attitude through the identification and management of changes in the behavior of workers, which are critical to safety (Joy, 2004). It is important to note that attitudes result from perceptions, which is the process through which human beings selectively receive, organize, interpret and give response to information within their environment. Attitudes are predispositions of people to either respond positively or negatively to an occurrence in the world around them. Most people first register attitudinal change sequence then follow it with behavior change but sometimes a change in behavior can also lead to a change in attitude. Since there is a method in behavioral science to measure and manage the behavior of masses, it is applicable in the behavior of individuals as well. Norms of behavior are central tendencies in every effort for a successful cultural change and the fundamental tool for analyzing applied behavior referred to as ABC (Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence) analysis (Jansen & Brent, 2005). Antecedent is an occurrence that triggers a behavior that is observable while a consequence is any response as a result of the observable behavior triggered by the antecedent. Antecedents are very vital in the behavioral studies but experts assert that consequences are more vital behavior determinants than antecedents in the analysis of behavior. This is because antecedent do not determine behavior directly but only elicit certain behavior since they signal or predict the consequences. Therefore, it is the objective of the ABC technique to establish the antecedents and consequences that influence a given behavior among people. Knowing these factors influencing behavior would enable a system of an organization to change them appropriately by changing the antecedents and the consequences thus changing the behavior pattern of mining employees in general. In essence, an antecedent and a consequence directly influence behavior, and while consequence powerfully and directly influence behavior, antecedents indirectly influence behavior with primary role of predicting the consequences. Apart from the fact that consequences are stronger than antecedents, it is also important to note that some consequences have more powerful results than others. There are three features that help in determining the strength of consequences applied, and these include timing, certainty and significance. Timing influences a consequence in that the outcome that soon follows an occurrence affects behavior more strongly than a consequence that follows later. Certainty influences behavior in the sense that a more predictable and sure consequence influences behavior strongly more than an unpredictable consequence (Jansen & Brent, 2005). Significance influences behavior in the sense that a positive outcome or consequence influences behavior more powerfully than a negative consequence. These three principles thus imply that to most powerfully influence behavior, the consequences should be quick, sure and positive simultaneously. Contrarily, negative, uncertain and late consequences are the weakest in so far as behavior change for safety is concerned within the mining industry (Joy, 2004). The Behavior change safety approach does not aim to change human behavior but it is mainly concerned with changing the workers behavior culture with a view to improving their safety in the mining industry. In designing the disaster and emergency prevention, preparedness and response plan for mining industry on behavior based safety, the organization involved should consider designing safety consequences that are soon, positive and certain. New attitudes will soon be built as a result of the consequences that would in turn lead to behavior change geared towards more workers safety in the mining industry. The organization will improve its production performance once it embraces the soon, certain and positive consequences behavior based safety system that should be progressively reviewed to improve its performance outcome.

1.5 Methodology

In assessing risks at the mining industries, it is recommended that positive elements of safety management system (SMS) with behavior based system (BBS) to make integrated safety management system (ISMS) (Jansen & Brent, 2005). The integrated safety management system method makes it possible for managing and controlling risks within an organization. Employees participation should be developed by employing the positive elements of the behavior based safety approach since they an integral part of the whole organization hence heir involvement would be relevant. A supportive work environment can be established by an organization that practices participative management in which employees are involved in matters that directly affect their lives. According to Joy (2004), research findings show that most employees feel that the way they are treated within their organizations by the managements influences a lot of their attitudes. Most employees develop negative job attitude due to the traditional hierarchal management structures making them intolerant. It is therefore important for mining organizations to embrace good social and corporate business practices through a commitment that demonstrates a positive consideration to employees safety and health welfare within the workplace. Most workers are demoralized by the application of hard stringent negative rules and this has a negative impact on miners safety at the work place since frontline field supervisors have much influence on safety effort and culture. Leaders should thus have the capability of aligning, motivating and encouraging workers to create enhanced harmony and favorable work environment for empowered employees.

1.5.1 Developing a Valid Risk Management Plan

The leadership of mining industries and organization should come up with valid disaster and risk management plans that are acceptable, adequate, complete, standard/consistent, feasible, adaptable/flexible and interoperable and collaborative in nature (Ellena, 2010). These are the element of a valid plan that any disasters and emergency prevention, preparedness and response strategy would put in place to generate a functional risk management system.

1.6 SWOT Analysis

Risk assessment at the mining industry cannot be accomplished without the given organization carrying out a SWOT analysis to gauge its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

1.6.1 Strengths

Here the mining organizations would know how to be compliant with national safety laws and put emphasis on training expatriates, investigate and evaluate incidents and risk scenarios (Jansen & Brent, 2005). The strengths of a company enable it to know how to manage vital risks hence minimize potential risks through injuries, incidents and hazards. A company with good occupational safety plan should provide a procedural change management plan and put strong focus on safety equipment and plant for its employees.

1.6.2 Weaknesses

A mining company would demonstrate weakness on occupational safety health policy if it does not embrace and practice employee participation on safety matters (Jansen & Brent, 2005). When more focus is put on production and profit making without regard to human factors and welfare of employees, with training over reliance and no measures put to evaluate risk levels and employee satisfaction level, the mining would be demonstrating monumental weakness on its employees safety.

1.6.3 Opportunities

A mining company can seize the opportunities for improving its employees’ safety by moving towards progressive improvement by implementing risk assessment recommendations. Workers and management of a mining organization need to meet and collaborate regularly on issues including legal and compliance to the national laws (Jansen & Brent, 2005. The organization needs to be committed towards achieving safety behavior and culture that are acceptable and should take safety incidents as opportunity to help in identifying failures in the organizational safety system hence making improvements.

1.6.4 Threats

The safety plan of an organization can be at risk if it is not implemented and only remains on paper. Again, a poorly designed safety management system can be destructive by influencing the safety culture of an organization (Jansen & Brent, 2005. This can happen when analysis of the incidents creates mistrust among members of an organization, poor safety incentives may discourage workers fro reporting injuries and when the process of accountability fails to acknowledge outstanding contributions accomplished by individuals. A safety policy that is under threat is when lack of reports on injuries and incidents makes the management to erroneously make assumptive conclusions that workers are observing safety standards in the organization.

1.7 Conclusion

Risk assessment is important for mining industry so as to evaluate the safety standards of the workers. In assessing risks, it is important to evaluate risks based on natural risks, technological and environmental risks. The mining occupation is an operation with high risk nature because of the factors and conditions o work. The most important factor to consider while developing risk assessment and mitigation is to attempt to change workers behavior for a safety culture. This is important because it will make every employee take part in the safety process. The mining organizations should develop an occupational safety health policy which is an integration of behavior based safety (BBS) and safety management system (SMS) to create an integrated safety management system (ISMS).