Safety | P&Q University Handbook

Although an assortment of safety and health measures were touched on in previous chapters of the Pit & Quarry University Handbook, mine operators have several other areas to consider to protect people on the job. 

Let’s dive into other relevant areas of aggregate operations that are fundamental to ensuring everybody goes home safely from their job every day. 

Personal Protective Equipment

The hierarchy of controls outlines the best ways to control hazards, from eliminating them altogether to relying on personal protective equipment (PPE) to manage exposure.  

The higher up you go on the triangle depicting the hierarchy of controls, the more effective the elimination is. PPE appears at the very bottom of the triangle, but why is it considered the least effective control?

Well, that control requires end users to recognize the need to wear it. They must act and put PPE on properly, and they must bear the responsibility of maintaining it. 

While PPE may be the least effective control, it is still critical that users wear it when needed. 

Exposures in pits and quarries are relatively predictable. Common exposures include noise, eye hazards, sharp edges, inhalation, bumps and bruises, and strains and strains.

Of course, few pieces of PPE are commonly relied on. Hard hats, safety glasses, hearing protection, gloves, proper footwear and high-visibility clothing such as vests are the most consistent PPE items used in the industry.  

Make PPE available

PPE availability is a consistent industrywide issue. 

A regulatory agency, for example, can cite a company for having no PPE available – even when an entire trailer load is present on-site. This has happened and, in one instance, the person with the key was simply not present. 

The pitfall in that case was a bottleneck: one person who managed multiple sites was the gatekeeper. So, make every effort to remove supply bottlenecks and ensure that necessary PPE is available.

Inspections and cleanliness

Working in a pit or quarry is not like working in a factory. Park a black vehicle near a crusher and see how clean it is at the end of the day.

PPE contends with these same contaminants. Management and safety professionals should be on the lookout for this in the field. They should speak up when they see PPE that isn’t clean or must be replaced.

Items to look for include scratched safety glasses, soiled high-visibility clothing, excessive stickers on hard hats that cover up potential damage that can’t be seen during inspections, inappropriate storage of PPE and anything that may compromise the effectiveness of PPE.  

Wear it appropriately

Some of the most effective sites have pictograms demonstrating to employees and visitors which PPE is needed on-site. Many of these illustrate how PPE should be worn.  

Management and safety professionals should reinforce what’s expected through consistent field visits and targeted feedback. A critical point here is that management and safety pros must “walk the talk” on these expectations.  

Safety cultures can quickly be undermined by managers and safety professionals who do not wear expected PPE when in the field. These bad examples set a tone, and they’re not easily forgotten. 

Use your ears

One other tip related to PPE is to listen. Specifically, listen to your teams.  

The people doing the work know what works and what doesn’t. Aside from the occasional grudge of not wanting to wear PPE at all, feedback from teams is usually about fit or effectiveness – both of which are valid concerns. 

Another item to listen in on is incidents that occur. These will reinforce if PPE is effective, if it’s being worn and if you have deeper items to address. 

PPE is a last line of defense, meaning if it’s needed to prevent an injury then several other barriers likely failed. So, dig deeper in your investigations, and don’t settle on PPE being the sole corrective action.

Fall Protection

As previously mentioned, hazards can be grouped into an acronym called “GEMS.”

Three of these four hazards – gravity, electrical and mechanical – are everywhere you look in pits and quarries. These can be very impactful to health and well-being.  

That said, let’s dive into “gravity” as it relates to fall protection.

What is fall protection

Fall protection is simply employing safeguards within your work environment to help prevent you from falling to a lower level.  

Some people struggle with understanding when fall protection is required. Legally, the thresholds vary.

For scaffolding, it’s 10 ft.; for construction work, 6 ft.; for general industry, 4 ft.; and for manlifts or work around crushers, fall protection is technically required at any height. 

But don’t get caught up in that regulatory game. Just use a common-sense approach to protecting employees from any fall. Some of the most serious injuries occur even from ground level.

Common types of fall protection

• Guardrails. Guardrail systems around a fixed plant are the most common type of fall protection in crushing plants. Guardrails consist of a toe kick, a mid-rail and a top rail – but these could be a continuous piece of metal mesh. Make sure these are in good shape, as plants take a beating from the elements, vibration and other factors. Your daily mine inspection should note any deficiencies so they can be corrected immediately. Also, know that if you get on a ladder or scaffolding and thereby raise your elevation, the guardrail may become ineffective, meaning you’ll need additional fall protection.
• Aerial lifts. These are an excellent tool – when used correctly. Aerial lifts can eliminate the need for scaffolding, ladders and working in an unsafe way to attain height. While aerial lifts have built-in guardrails, those are not sufficient for fall protection if an aerial lift is mobile. If a moving aerial lift hits a rock, debris or another object, it could catapult you out of the basket. This is why you always need to wear fall protection in a mobile aerial lift – regardless of how elevated the lift is. 
• Engineered systems. By far, the two most common methods of fall protection in pits and quarries are guardrails and aerial lifts. Some scenarios require additional engineering to solve – like working on top of pieces of mobile equipment that don’t have guardrails. Just know you should consult an engineer when creating these systems, as you must ensure you have at least 3,000 lbs. of anchorage strength when using work positioning systems – and 5,000 lbs. when using fall protection systems. These systems, which include harnesses, lanyards and engineered connection points and lines, must be inspected and often have expiration dates you must adhere to. 

What to avoid

Falls tend to have one thing in common: shortcuts were taken. Here are a few items to seek out and not permit into your organization:

• Standing on guardrail systems
• Ascending and descending ladders or stairs with your hands full
• Attaining height through unapproved means (i.e., standing on chairs, standing on top of trucks, standing in loader buckets)
• Jumping to a lower level
• Using a stepladder in the closed position 
• Not wearing a harness/lanyard while in an aerial lift
• Using a straight/extension ladder without having it secured (i.e., either footed by a team member or tied off

Guardrails & Guarding

The “two G’s” – guardrails and guarding – are fundamental safeguards within the aggregate industry. If overlooked, these can result in serious consequences.

Crushing plants are continuously exposed to the elements, vibration, and general wear and tear. After a long season, for example, guardrails and machine guards can become compromised. 

While you should always be on the lookout for issues involving the “two G’s,” you should make a point to perform a thorough review of guardrails and machine guarding.

Guardrails

The primary function of a guardrail is to keep people from falling to a lower level. 

Guardrails are also designed to prevent objects from falling to a lower level. No one, after all, wants to be struck by a falling drill, shovel or tool.  

Guardrails are typically constructed of a top rail, a mid-rail and a toe kick, although they can be comprised of extruded metal mesh or another engineered system that meets Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA) expectations.

A subcategory of guardrails is self-closing gates. Crushing plants are full of straight ladders to access upper levels. For years, these transitions – from ladder to platform – have been protected by chains or nothing. 

A best practice to consider is adding a “self-closing gate” to a transition. This helps to engineer out the human element of having to reinstall chains to protect falls to a lower level. These have become widely available over the past few years from industrial safety suppliers.

Machine guarding

Rotating, crushing and pinching are the most common hazards that machine guards are used for. They create a barrier between humans and hazards.

Be sure to protect people from both unintentional and intentional contact. Newer equipment will typically come with manufacturer-provided guarding, although the incidents that occur involving machine guarding are typically severe.

Missing the signs

If guardrails and machine guarding are fundamental – and should always be in place – then why are they on the frequently cited standards lists for MSHA and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration?

The answer here is olfactory adaptation, a phenomenon that occurs when people become “nose blind” to their surroundings.  

Think of it this way: Can you smell your own house? You likely can’t, because you are exposed to it every day. But if you go into someone else’s house, you’ll probably notice the nuances to their home – the good and the bad.  

The same thing happens in our facilities: When you see the same thing every day, your senses can drift. Over time, small changes can be missed.  

This is why getting outside opinions can help a site “see” things they have overlooked – like missing guardrails or machine guarding. This is also why MSHA can pick up on things that were seemingly right under your nose.

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