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Morragh Mine
1. Identify the hazards in the case, which can be environmental, situational, human or ergonomic.
Environmental Hazards
Mining is a dangerous occupation, and many of these dangers are associated with the environment in which the miners worked. One environmental hazard evident in this case was the dangers the miners encountered while working underground. While working in this type of situation there are always threats of cave-ins and because the environment is underground there would be a lack of natural light.
Situational Hazards
Situational hazards are known as unsafe conditions which exist when proper measures are not taken by company officials, for example, management not providing proper safe equipment. There are many situational factors apparent in this case; the first situational factor was the high levels of methane gas in the underground mine. The reason for these high methane levels were because the mine was not properly ventilated and methanometers were not working correctly.
A second situational hazard was the ankle-deep coal dust on the mine ground. This is a situational hazard because proper clean-up procedures were not utilized, therefore, causing the working environment to be unsafe. Oil rags and oil spills were not cleaned up on a regular basis at Morragh. There were reports of oil rags being left underground, and oil spills not being cleaned up. This poor house keeping caused the underground working environment to be unsafe. Management at Morragh mine did not acknowledge their occupational health and safety committee. The fact that the OH&S committee was not encouraged to meet and they were not a ...