Effects of Metatarsal Work Boots on Gait During Level and Inclined Walking.

Footwear plays an important role in worker safety. Work boots with safety toes are often utilized at mine sites to protect workers from hazards. Increasingly, mining operations require metatarsal guards in addition to safety toe protection in boots. While these guards provide additional protection, the impact of metatarsal guards on gait are unknown. This study aimed to measure the effects of 4 safety work boots, steel toe, and steel toe with metatarsal protection in wader- and hiker-style boots, on level and inclined walking gait characteristics, during ascent and descent. A total of 10 participants completed this study. A motion capture system measured kinematics that allowed for the calculation of key gait parameters. Results indicated that gait parameters changed due to incline, similar to previous literature. Wader-style work boots reduced ankle range of motion when ascending an incline. Hip, knee, and ankle ranges of motion were also reduced during descent for this style of boot. Wader-style boots with metatarsal guards led to the smallest ankle range of motion when descending an inclined walkway. From these results, it is likely that boot style affects gait parameters and may impact a miner's risk for slips, trips, or falls.

Emerging Ergonomics Issues and Opportunities in Mining.

Ergonomics is the scientific discipline that investigates the interactions between humans and systems to optimize both human and system performance for worker safety, health, and productivity. Ergonomics is frequently involved either in the design of emerging technologies or in strategies to alleviate unanticipated human performance problems with emerging technologies. This manuscript explores several such emerging issues and opportunities in the context of the mining sector. In mining, the equipment, tools, and procedures have changed considerably and continue to change. Body-worn technology provides a number of opportunities to advance the safety and health of miners, while teleoperation and autonomous mining equipment stand to benefit significantly from ergonomics applications in other sectors. This manuscript focuses on those issues and opportunities that can impact the safety and health of miners in the near term.

Method for measuring wear on boot outsoles using a 3D laser scanner.

In the mining industry, slips and falls are the second leading cause of non-fatal injuries. Footwear is the primary defence against a slip; consequently, the condition of the footwear outsole is critical to maintaining slip resistance. Currently, there is no published method that can be used to determine when the outsole no longer affords adequate slip protection. Moreover, quantifying the condition of the outsole through the measurement of outsole features can be tedious. This article introduces a new method for the quantification of boot outsole wear. Using a handheld 3D scanner, boot scans can be taken quickly and the developed models used to measure outsole features. This method also accounts for the bending of the boot due to normal wear, which may otherwise introduce erroneous measures. When compared to measurements with a traditional handheld calliper, this new method offers more flexibility in terms of data collection, accounts for other types of boot transformations, and is more efficient to use over multiple measurement periods with no statistically significant differences in measurement.