Measuring whole-body vibration at surface and underground mines

Long term exposure to high amplitude whole-body vibration is strongly associated with the development of back injury. Mobile plant used at mines are likely to be a source of high vibration amplitudes and management of the hazard requires systematic measurement of vibration levels. This paper describes measurements of whole-body vibration taken during projects funded by the Coal Services Health and Safety Trust (20624 & 20638), and the Australian Coal Association Research Program (C23022). Collectively, the aims of the projects were to develop, validate and demonstrate the use of an iOS application (WBV) to enable simple and inexpensive measurement of whole-body vibration at surface and underground coal mines. After developing the application and assessing it’s accuracy, iPOD Touch devices were used to collect 135 long duration measurements from earth-moving equipment in operation at a surface coal mine. Operators of dozers and off-road haul trucks, in particular, are exposed to vertical wholebody vibration levels which lie within, or above, the Health Guidance Caution Zone defined by ISO2631.1. The devices were subsequently used to collect 62 long duration measurements from a range of mobile plant in operation at three underground coal mines.