The Prevention through Design approach in the mining activities

The present work underlines the aspects which often are not extensively discussed during the planning and the management phase of the extractive activities, such as the evaluation of system availability and the economic and social risks associated with the mining and quarrying sectors. While taking into account the specific laws and regulations of this industrial sector, the economic importance and the occupational relevance at local, national and international level, the accidents common scenario, the work-related diseases and the most common violations of the standards at the extractive activities have been shown. Moreover the different approaches adopted to the underlined criticalities have been remarked (MSHA / OSHA - developed criteria for the analysis of injuries and occupational diseases). It was emphasized the absolute importance of a pro-active planning during the very fist stages of the study in order to reach a continuous improvement both of the availability of the system (machines, plants and formalized procedures) and of the assessment and management of the risks through the approach recommended by the European Community Directives (quality product / system quality / quality environment / occupational safety and health). The "routine" operations that are constantly required to restore the correct levels of operator's attention have also been highlighted. Finally, by adopting some Hazard Identification techniques (mainly FTA and HazOp), different deviations from normal working conditions and the consequent managing solutions were investigated on a real case study.