TRAM trip report
December 11, 2008 By: Carl R. Metzgar, CSP Pit & QuarryThe quality of presentations was maintained. The crowd was most pleasant. The food was quite good. The organization and functioning were smooth. So considering all of the good things about this conference, why not mark your calendar for Oct. 13-15, and attend the Mine Safety and Health Academy?
There were more two-hour sessions this year. One session was “Rigging, Knowing What’s What,” one on “Using Digital Cameras to Enhance Mine Training,” one on “The Evolving of Annual Refresher” and one on “Electrical High and Low Voltage.” Obviously, two hours is not enough time to exhaust these subjects, but having two hours does relax the atmosphere for the presenter and provides more time for questions.
Admission
All of these years I was wrong! It always seemed to me that playing games was no way to conduct training. The session titled “Powered Haulage Safety Rules, Interpretations and Ideas” tricked me into attending. Nothing in the title suggested games, but with the challenge, even after all of these years of working, of reducing the number and severity of hauling injuries it just seemed like a session worth attending.
Imagine my horror when the presenter introduced a game. It was a variant of jeopardy, and since this training session was the beta test it wasn’t completely smooth. There were glitches, but the 22 people, miners and hardened trainers at the session got into the game. The prizes were minimal (pieces of individually wrapped candy). It worked, and the surprising thing was the number of standards, work procedures and illustrations that were covered in an hour. The subject was not exhausted and neither was the audience. Success on all fronts, from a game no less!
“Welding and Cutting Injuries in Mining” was an interesting presentation. There was a good bit of quality material, but the best part was the background introduction, with follow-up, of ear protection from slag, and the attention to the trouser/boot connection. A couple of knowledgeable people in attendance contributed to the quality of the presentation. That is a real benefit of this conference. Sessions are small enough that no one is intimidated.
Test inspection
“Conveyor Guarding and Lockout/Tagout” is the long title for a conveyor inspection practicum. A cement plant in Texas built a short conveyor model with built-in violations. The challenge was to find the citable deficiencies. Three attendees, strangers to one another, cooperated in front of the room to perform the inspection. It was most interesting. The most useful thing for me was learning how easily moisture could make a small circuit breaker nonfunctional and thereby render an emergency stop chord useless.
Falls and fall protection is a demanding discipline. The fall protection gear comes in various degrees of utility and quality. The prescription of need is easy. If there is a chance of a fall, protection is more than just a good idea. But this presentation promptly brought to mind the old safety poem, “The Ambulance Down in the Valley” (Google it). If a miner is put in a fall-protection harness, preparation for retrieval should be complete and ready to implement before he or she is put in harm’s way. The presenters in this session repeatedly reminded attendees that a suspended victim needs relief in five to 10 minutes. I remember an old paper suggesting that blood pressure can be adversely affected in as little as two minutes.
There were 60 sessions and several meals with time in between for constructive conversation. Presenters and attendees who have added comments and insights are walking around, and everybody is approachable.
Mark your calendar; it is worth the trip.
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