Technology Transfer Contact:
Ms. Elaine Cullen
Spokane Research Center
E. 315 Montgomery Avenue
Spokane, WA 99207
509-354-8057 Fax: 509-354-8099
Email: efc8@cdc.gov
Home Page: www.cdc.gov/niosh/im-srl.html

Background:

The Spokane Research Laboratory conducts health and safety research to assist in the prevention of injuries, fatalities, and disease in the extractive industries. Relevant research is also being used to benefit worker health and safety in other industry sectors, such as construction and agriculture. SRL is part of the Office for Mine Safety and Health Research (OMSHR) in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), an institute in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Health and Human Services.

SRL currently employs 76 full-time personnel and up to 25 part-time students and /or academic consultants. The facility includes a 50,000 square-foot building built in 1974 that houses over 90 offices; five laboratories; wood, metal, and electrical shops; two equipment bays; and a heated metal building with about 12,000 square feet of storage and staging areas. An additional facility, the Reardon Missile Site, located approximately 25 miles west of Spokane, is used for storing and testing research concepts and equipment.

Vision/Mission:

Vision: Delivering on the Nation's promise: safety and health for all mine and other workers through research and prevention.

Mission: Provide quality leadership in the prevention of work-related illness, injury, and death in the extractive industries in the western United States by:

• Tracking fatal and nonfatal traumatic injuries, occupational diseases, health and safety hazards, and the use of control technology in the extractive industries. The focus is on issues unique to mine workers in the Western states, such as those associated with deep metal mines, western coal mines, and precious metal deposits;
• Conducting field investigations, health hazard evaluations, and laboratory studies of occupational diseases, injuries, and fatalities;
• Conducting laboratory and field investigations to better understand the causes of catastrophic events that may lead to multiple injuries and fatalities, such as collapse of underground workings, massive slope failures, and the collapse of mining facilities;
• Developing tests and demonstrating sensors, predictive models, and engineering control technologies to reduce miners' risks for injury or death;
• Preparing and recommending appropriate criteria for new standards, NIOSH policy, documents, or testimony related to health and safety in the extractive industries;
• Creating underground and surface health and safety training tools.

Core Competencies:

SRL professionals have diverse educational backgrounds at the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. levels. Collectively, researchers have education and experience in mining, mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering; geology; geophysics; mathematics; industrial hygiene; chemistry; biology; epidemiology; communications; and business administration. Several employees are Certified Mine Safety Professionals and/or licensed engineers or geologists. Descriptive and analytic epidemiology is used as the basic approach to acquire and analyze information on mine injuries and illnesses and mine accidents, hazards, and exposures. This information is provided to researchers and stakeholders to help them to eliminate the most significant health and safety problems in the mining industry.

Geotechnical Engineering: SRL researchers are nationally and internationally recognized for their work in developing engineering controls to reduce ground fall hazards and pioneering seismic monitoring methods to help forecast uncontrolled or unplanned deformation of ground. Work has included the development of a variety of rock bolts, including instrumented bolts and cable bolts, and three-dimensional computer models used to help predict ground failures.

Safety Control Technology: Researchers are investigating the use of new technologies to reduce and control hazards associated with the use of mining equipment and practices. For example, proximity warning systems for haulage trucks are being studied as a possible means of eliminating collisions with pedestrians and other vehicles, and other studies are underway to identify methods to reduce operator injuries from jolting and jarring on heavy mining equipment.

Materials Handling: The vast amount of material transported to and from mines and the large scale of the systems and equipment used for moving this material create the potential for serious injuries. Researchers at SRL are investigating innovative ways to reduce the dangers inherent in such work through redesign and development of equipment, modification of work practices, and transfer of information.

Health Hazard Exposure Control: Research is being conducted to identify high-risk health hazards in the mining environment and develop strategies to control worker exposures. Research has focused on measuring and controlling exposures to airborne particulates, heat, and toxic substances.

Socioeconomic Studies: The social and financial consequences of workplace injuries, fatalities, and related hazards are being studied to highlight the importance of health and safety to both workers and employers. The studies examine economic costs based on both direct and indirect costs of an injury or a fatality. In addition, the personal and social responses of victims and co-workers at job sites where accidents occur are being analyzed to evaluate the overall impacts on morale and productivity, and ultimately, the bottom line. These studies will provide a greater understanding of the complex interaction among the economic, psychological, and sociological impacts of injuries and fatalities on workers, employers, and society.

Interactive Mine Safety and Health Education/Research: Novel training methods are being developed to meet the need for safety training for miners, particularly new miners. For example, computer simulations are being used to create training modules for mine evacuation, accident reconstruction, and new miner training; "toolbox" training materials are being written and evaluated for training miners and construction workers on site; and new mining safety videos are being produced.

Unique Facilities:

Laboratory personnel have designed and installed numerous types of instruments in hundreds of mines throughout the country to monitor roof failures, roof closure rate, microseismic activity, loads on roof supports, embankment stability, and in-place backfill and rock pillars. Monitoring and test equipment includes:

10,000-lb/in2 polyaxial test cells; Small-scale (1/50) underground physical monitoring facility; Triaxial testing machine (to 1 million pounds); Stiff testing machine (rock failure to 1 million pounds); Split Hopkinson pressure bar test machine (to 300,000 lb); Shock-testing machine (to10,000 G's); Force platform (to 2,000 lb); Industrial hygiene laboratory; Experimental hydrogen-powered vehicle; Collision avoidance systems for large mining and construction equipment; Bulk materials handling test facility; Engineering machine shop; Audio/video production and editing facilities; Three-dimensional computer-aided design capabilities; Analytical design capabilities using finite-element, finite-difference, boundary-element, and hybrid computer programs.