HEALTH & SAFETY
PPE for women MINE HEALTH AND SAFETY COUNCIL
IN MINING
A major challenge for the mining industry has been to introduce and ensure the full incorporation of women into the sector, by extension ensuring the provision of appropriate PPE for them.
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p until the 1990s, legislation meant that women were not permitted to work in the mining industry in South Africa. This changed when the South African Mining Charter in 2004 introduced targets urging mining companies to have at least 10% female participation in the staff complement by 2009. The provision resulted in women making inroads into the male-dominated mining sector despite the occupational health and safety challenges that favour men. The mining industry is an inherently hazardous industry, with workers often exposed to various health and safety risks, including chemical, physical, biological and psychosocial hazards in the workplace. Some of the causes of ill health in the industry are noise, dust, vibration and performing manual tasks. The functional work capacity of workers can be affected by factors such as age, gender, injuries, health, lifestyle and anthropometrics – particularly height, weight, body mass index, body circumference and skinfold thickness.
The Act Section 11 of the Mine Health and Safety Act (No. 29 of 1996) provides specifications on the obligations of the employer to assess and respond to the risk that employees may be exposed to while at work. It is expected that the employer would do as far as reasonably practicable within their means to determine and implement feasible and effective control solutions to substantially reduce the risk of illness or injury to employees. Ideally it would be most preferred to eliminate the risk or substitute the hazard,
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or engineer the hazard out of the process, practice or activity. However, this is mostly only successful during the design phase of processes or systems. In existing practices, the employer is often left with limited options, relying on administrative controls and personal protective equipment (PPE) to manage the identified risk where hazards are not particularly well controlled. Furthermore, section 6 of the Act stipulates that employers must ensure the adequate supply of all necessary health and safety equipment and health and safety facilities for each employee. They must also, as far as reasonably practicable, ensure that equipment and those facilities are in serviceable and hygienic conditions.
Ensuring appropriate PPE Previous research has shown that females generally have lower physical work capacities, physical strength and heat tolerance than their male counterparts, and that they also differ in anthropometry and body composition. However, the design of PPE for mineworkers has generally been based on male anthropometric dimensions. This may compromise women’s comfort, safety and performance at work. Owing to the physical differences between males and females, stakeholders in the mining industry acknowledged the need to conduct studies and research to determine and understand the impact of mining work on the occupational health and safety of
