Excessive – надмірний
Undesirable – небажаний
Egress – засіб евакуації, вихід
Exposure to something – підвердження чому-небудь
Flooding – затоплення
Explosion – вибух
Falls of roof – обвалення грунту
Face – вибій
Side – бік виробки
Haulage – транспортування
Ignition –займання
Dust – пил
Inundation of water – затоплення, наводнення
Injuries - пошкодження, травма
Suffocation – задуха
Heat stroke – тепловий удар
Lung diseases – захворювання легень
Pneumoconiosis – пневмонікоз
Dermatitis – дерматит
Common denominator –загальний знаменник
In sufficient amounts – у достатній кількості
Fumes – дим, газ
Mist – туман
Vapors – випаровування, пар
To be prohibited - бути забороненим
Permitted – дозволений
II. Read and translate the text.
Basics of labour protection
Protection of the health and safety of employees from excessive or undersirable stresses in the occupational environment is all important. These hazards include reduced natural ventilation and light, difficult and limited access and egress, exposure to air contaminants, fire, flooding and explosion.
Ventilation is an important common denominator in most health and safety design consideration in mines. In additional to the supply of fresh air to the mines, the overall control of gas, dust, heat and humidity problems is achieved through the proper design of the ventilation system.
Fresh air must be supplied to all underground work areas in sufficient amounts to prevent any dangerous or harmful accumulation of dust, fumes, mists, vapors or gases. If natural ventilation does not provide the necessary air quality through sufficient ai9r volume and air flow. The employer must provide mechanical ventilation to ensure that each employee working underground has at least 7.7 m3 of fresh air per minute.
Open flames and fires are prohibited in underground construction areas except as permitted for welding, cutting or other hot work operation. Smoking is prohibited unless an area is free of fire and explosion hazard.
Special air monitoring conductor
The employer must assign a “competent person” to perform air monitoring. If this individual determines that air contaminants may present a danger to life at any time, the employer must immediately take all necessary precautions and post a notice at all entrances to the underground site about the hazardous condition.
Test for oxygen first
The competent person charged with air monitoring must test for oxygen content before testing for air contaminants. All underground work areas must be tested as often as necessary to verify that the atmosphere at normal atmospheric pressure remains within the acceptable parameters of 19.5 and 22 percent oxygen.
Problems of noise and illumination, always a matter of concern in underground workings, are being addressed through the identification, development and incorporation of specific design requirement for mine machinery and mining environment.
Ground support of underground areas.
A competent person must inspect the roof, face, and walls of the work areas at the beginning of each shift and as often as necessary to ensure ground stability. B the ground conditions along all haulage ways and travel ways must also be inspected as frequently as necessary to ensure safe passage and loose ground considered to be hazardous to employees must be scaled, supported or taken down.
Employees involved in installing ground support system must be adequately protected from the hazards of loose ground. Any dislodged or damaged ground supports that create a hazardous condition must be promptly repaired or replaced. The new supports must be installed before removing the damaged supports.
Hazards, accidents and disasters
The term hazard is used here to describe an unsafe situation in a mine. This may be an unsafe physical condition or unsafe acts on miners. For example, methane is a source of hazard.
An accident is the realization of a hazard. If a large number of people are in fact killed, it is deemed a disaster.
Hazard control approaches
As distinct from practices in many other industries, the mine working environment cannot be precisely controlled. Also the environment is constantly changing. It is virtually impossible to foresee all the possible hazard and therefore, to take precautions against each of them.
Medical examination
Pre- employment physical examinations are periodic continuing examinations are required to assure that employees’ health and physical conditions are routinely monitored and documented. These examinations may reveal physical problems such as hearing loss, loss of vision, heart problems, arthritic conditions, lung impairment.
Miner training must emphasize both general and job-specific health and safety aspects and improvement of production and maintenance skills.
The enhancement of personnel health and safety in mines requires an understanding of the hazards and the requirements for their control. In addition to the learning experience from the lamentable history of accidents and disasters in mines, there is critical need to reduce the risks of mine hazard are resulting accidents through the application of such proactive analysis technique as systems safety analysis and disaster simulation for the identification of new hazards.
III. Answer the following questions.
1. What hazards underground do you know?2. What is underground ventilation provided for?
3. What happens if there are too much noxious gases present underground?
4. What is the minimum amount of a fresh air that should be present underground?
5. In what cases an open fire is allowed underground?
6. Why is smoking prohibited underground?
7. Why is air monitoring should be carried out on a constant basis?
8. What percentage of oxygen must be present underground for miners breathing?
9. How can an excessive noise cause troubles to miners?
10. Why should a mine roof be supported and how is it conducted?
11. How can you define a disaster?
12. Why medical examination is so important for the miners?