Comparison of the occupational hazards in the Spanish mining sector based on the type of workplace in the period 2003-2012

Abstract

Methods and background: This review has done a comparison of the 3 types of workplace in the Spanish mining sector. The 3 workplaces considered are: mines, quarries and mineral processing plants. The 10 most frequent accidents and deviations have been obtained for each one. It has also been calculated the annual incidence, frequency, average duration and severity indexes as well as the risk index for each one. Besides, the accident distribution has been modelling, based on exponential distribution function of the lost days in the 3 workplaces mentioned. Results: The main sort of accident is due to physical overexertion and the principal deviation is the material collapsing from the roof of the mines, no coordinate movements in quarries and body movements because of physical overexertion in mineral processing plants.