Mining and quarrying is regarded as among the sectors with the "highest level of risk" in the Health and Safety Authority's (HSA) annual report 1997, its most recent. The sector includes the mining and processing of ores, coal, peat, lignite and the extraction of natural gas and oil.The HSA found that "machinery safety, management systems and welfare arrangements were inadequate in many of the quarries visited". The injury rate among the 6,200 workers in the sector in the Republic in 1997 was 3,226 per 100,000.This makes working in mines and quarries considerably more dangerous places to work than the construction sector where the injury rate was 1,965 per 100,000 in 1997, while mining and quarrying is more than twice as dangerous as agriculture which had an injury rate of 1,416 per 100,000 in 1997.As many as 99 of the 6,200 mining and quarrying workers were injured during 1997 alone, one of them fatally by being crushed. The HSA received 34 complaints against mines and quarries and carried out 321 inspections. Almost a quarter of mines and quarries (24.1 per cent) did not have a Safety Statement prepared, which is regarded as the most important step in managing health and safety within any business or organisation and which all employers in any enterprise are legally obliged to prepare.In Northern Ireland, some 1,500 people work in quarries - less than half of 1 per cent of the total working population - yet as many as 15 per cent of workplace fatalities occur in quarries. Quarry workers are three times more likely to be killed in a work-related accident than are construction workers and serious injuries are "commonplace" and "happen quite literally every working week of the year", according to the Health and Safety Agency for Northern Ireland.A new 23-minute video Risk Assessment for a Safer Quarry by the Health & Safety Agency of Northern Ireland is packed with vital information about safety in the quarrying industry.It says that some employers in the quarrying industry ignore even basicsafety management, resulting in avoidable fatalities, serious injuries and in some cases forced closures.A large part of the video is shot from a closed quarry, against the backdrop of plainly visible examples of gross safety deficiencies.The site is generally untidy. There is evidence of poor face management, with the risk of materials falling onto roadways making it difficult to manoeuvre vehicles. There is insufficient edge protection on roadways, a particular danger given that more than 50 per cent of quarry fatalities involve vehicles.Another cause of accidents and fatalities in quarries is slips, trips and falls. The video displays gaps where there should be guards, missing or rotting boards and debris strewn on walkways. Workers are also vulnerable to being crushed or losing limbs from rock crushers and conveyors.

Inadequate guarding on belt drives makes it all too easy for workers to reach in and make contact with moving parts. One guard is secured only by a toggle catch which can easily be opened when guards should require an engineering tool for access, to prevent untrained operatives from attempting a quick fix which could result in an injury.The operator's enclosure in the crusher should have adequate protection from high noise levels and it shouldn't be possible for workers to climb into the crusher to clear blockages. Instead, a remote robot arm should be employed to do this.The video offers detailed recommendations for every aspect of safe quarrying, for example, a safety traffic system. Specific suggestions include devising a one-way system, having emergency slip roads and installing visibility aids for drivers such as reversing cameras.The video also deals with the safety management of machinery with moving parts, working at heights, the safe use of crushers, obtaining the raw material, working with explosives, settlement ponds and personal protective equipment.Risk Assessment for a Safer Quarry is available, free of charge, from the Health and Safety Agency, 83 Ladas Drive, Belfast BT6 9FR. Telephone: 0801 232 243249. Fax: 0801232 235 383.For your diary: The EAP Institute is holding a conference on Workplace Discrimination in Dublin on April 14th. For further information, contact Mr Maurice Quinlan, 143 Barrack Street, Waterford. Telephone: 051 855 733. Fax 051 879 626.