Coal mining> Most deadly job in China

China produced 35 percent of the world's coal last year, but reported 80 percent of the total deaths in coal mine accidents, according to statistics with the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS). This means that coal mining has become the most deadly job in China.
Among accidents occurred from January 2001 to October 2004, there were 188 each with death toll of more than 10, about one death every 7.4 days, said SAWS Wang Xianzheng at a national meeting on coal mine safety. In the past one month along, the country reported a series of coal mine accidents, causing over 200 deaths. In 2003, the average coal miner in China produces 321 tons of coal a year; this is only 2.2 percent of that in the United States and 8.1 percent that of South Africa. The death rate for every 100 tons of coal, however, is 100 times of that of the US and 30 times of the South Africa. Working conditions for China's coal miners need to be improved.  About 600,000 miners to date are suffering from pneumoconiosis, a disease of the lungs caused by long-continued inhalation of dust. And the figure increases by 70,000 miners every year. The government has taken a lot of measures to improve work safety at coal mines. In 2000, China set up a national surveillance system to keep a close eye on the safety conditions of coal mines. In the following years, the government earmarked more than 4 billion yuan (over US$480 million) to help state-owned and small local coal mines in gas explosion prevention and monitoring.
Compared with the past, China's coal mine safety has improved. In the first nine months this year, the number of reported coal mine accidents dropped by 242 cases or 8 percent year-on-year. The death toll dropped 13.2 percent. Following the present situation, the death toll in coal mine accidents this year is expected to drop by 1,400, or 22 percent over last year; Predictions says that China's coal output in 2004 would reach above 1.9 billion tons, twice of that in 2000, but the death rate of every 100 tons would be put under three, lower than 5.77 in 2000; Even so, China lags far behind developed countries in coal mine safety. Facing severe coal mine safety situation, the General Office of the State Council has issued a circular earlier this month to strengthen surveillance of coal mine safety. The circular further clarifies responsibilities of surveillance departments and has decided to set up local surveillance bureaus in five provinces and regions of Hebei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Qinghai and Fujian. Chinese State Councilor Hua Jianmin said at Thursday's meeting that China will take tough measures to rectify coal mine industry this winter, vowing to improve the country's coal mine safety.

Current Portable Safety Equipment

Miners using Drager BG4

Commonly referred to as a rebreather, the closed-circuit breathing apparatus operates on a proven model of efficiency; by removing carbon dioxide, recycling unused oxygen and supplying fresh oxygen from a cylinder. Light-weight and comfortable, the BG-4 weighs less than most 60-minute SCBAs. Its positive pressure design provides the user with effortless and quiet breathing.

Cave Rescue Training from 1989

Cave Rescue Training from 1989 from SBSAR on Vimeo.

Awesome video from the last 80's, this one is more focus in cave rescue...!

Barstow DRS and Cave Rescue Training

Barstow DRS and Cave Rescue Training near Calico from SBSAR on Vimeo.

This is part of the same rescue group before, they're in San Bernardino CA.
They have interesting things in the videos, specially equipment and techniques but my feeling is: this kind of training is not as serous as other I've seen before.

Orientation to Cave Rescue Course (US)

Orientation to Cave Rescue Course July 18-19 from SBSAR on Vimeo.

I found this video that shows more less a group of volunteers training a rescue in the mine...!

Safety equipment in mines

Seguridad en la mina from Martin L Vargas on Vimeo.

This is a video I found recently on the web, it shortly talks about safety equipment on mines in the north of Mexico.

Mine in Mexico

El Porvenir de Zacualpan from antonio_aguilar on Vimeo.

Mine "El Chivo" (México)

Mine "El Chivo", Mexico

Last week I visited in Zacualpan, Edo. de México a miner company called "El Porvenir de Zacualpan" they own 3 different mines in a region 2.5 hours away from Mexico City; The company was originally mexican but was sold to an important Canadian investor group. They extract silver, zinc and lead mainly.


The story started on Dec 22th when I traveled by car 2.5 hours to the South of Mexico to meet Francisco Henández geology supervisor at the mine; More than 6 hours took my visit there. When I just got in there we had a small interview where we discussed security aspects inside of the mine, they have had only 1 death in the last 7 years, the reason was rock collapsing. The biggest risk in these kind of mines is: collapsing; Because of the lack of gases and a very good ventilation system they do not have the risk of an explosion as some other mines which extract coal. In here the organization in every work group is amazing. Even I noted a very relax safety system in the mine the efficiency of each miner is very high and the accident rate is very low in comparison with some other countries like China who has the highest accident rate per year (around 3,000 deaths ever year). 


I had the opportunity to talk with different miners and supervisors, amazingly they spent more than 6 hours with me explained all the processes since the extraction until the metal´s transformation. I am preparing a short video to show you guys my experience in the mexican mine and some conclusions.


      

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE AT MINES

Örebro, Sweden 2008

During my internship at Atlas Copco I had the opportunity to go to the testing mine in Örebro, Sweden. Our visit was couple of hours merely to immerse ourselves in the subject and understand better the real mine environment. 
This mine it is owned by Atlas Copco, it is in here where they test their machines before they ship them; The big machines like scoops, diggers and drills are yield to test, every machine must be in a perfect conditions before leave the factory, I had the opportunity to test one of the huge scoops. 



  

INITIAL BRIEF

Testing Mine in Örebro, Sweden

The collaboration idea for this project is: to develop a new type of product in the area of "Rescue in mines" with a focus on user-centered design innovation.

Thousand of miners die from miner accidents every year, specially in the process of coal mining and hard rock mining.  Most of the deaths today occur in developing countries like: China, India, Mexico and rural parts of developed countries, mining rescue is the very specialized job of rescuing miners and others who have become trapped or injured underground in mines because of mining accidents and disasters such as explosions caused by firedamp, roof falls or floods.

The aim of this project is to propose a new and innovative solution to rescue miners. 

WHY "RESCUE IN MINES"...?

In the summer of 2008 after to have completed my first year of MA in Advanced Product Design in Umeå, I started a 3 months internship in the design department at Atlas Copco in Örebro, Sweden. I had the opportunity to know better what a big company like Atlas Copco does and discover the chances I have as a designer to collaborate together in a beneficial product in the mining industry. My former boss Alex brought about the idea to design a beneficial "something" to rescue people in mines, also could be used to prevent further accidents.

Umeå Institute of Design philosophy is to create innovative products which improve people's lives, therefore both matched perfectly into my idea to combine the big industry and the beneficial product, likewise in a design terms I feel is an unexplored field which has many opportunities to end up with a real project.

I am looking forward to start my degree project in collaboration with Atlas Copco and my tutors are: Alex Liebert by Atlas Copco  and Anders Smith by the UID.