Mining Product: Keeping Knees Healthy in Restricted Work Spaces: Applications in Low-Seam Mining

• Coal mining
• Knee pads
• Knees
• Low seam mining
• Miners

This training package educates the mining community about some possible interventions beyond kneepads that may be used to help decrease knee injury rates.

Many challenges are faced by workers in lower-seam (42 inches or less) mines. The lower-seam heights confine mine workers to their knees as they perform their daily tasks such as installing roof bolts, delivering supplies, repairing belt, or cutting coal. Miners often consider kneepads to be their only line of defense against knee injuries. However, other interventions such as changing postures, proper hygiene, and work station design can also reduce the risk of developing knee injuries. Incorporating these and many other interventions into a mine worker's "way of life" is an important step to ensuring a long, healthy career and retirement. Keeping knees healthy is also a key aspect to reducing costs in low-seam mines as the industry battles rising health care costs, and training/recruitment of replacement workers is time-consuming and costly.

This training package is a downloadable ZIP file containing the following items

• An Instructor's Guide that explains how to use all of these items.
• "Information Circular 9504 - Keeping Knees Healthy in Restricted Work Spaces: Applications in Low-Seam Mining" (an overview of how this training was developed, including a glossary of terms)
• Six (8.5" x 11") bulletins to be posted in mine facilities
• Two (2' x 2') posters to be posted in mine facilities
• Two types of reflective stickers to be distributed to mine workers
• Four (8.5" x 11") safety talks to be given to mine workers preshift
• One bifold flyer to be given to the mine workers
• Three training modules, which may be given individually or combined int one presentation

Installation notes:

• Download and extract the ZIP file (NIOSH/USBM Numbered Publication) below to a folder on your hard disk.
• Start by opening the files called "READ Me.txt" and "Instructor's Guide.pdf" in the root directory.