Backhoe and Loader Excavator Operators’ Workplace Health and Safety and Gaseous Pollutants

Abstract

Operating heavy machinery is both physically and mentally very demanding job, which still carries significant risks, especially at excavators, even with the current regulations in place. Given that working conditions have a substantial impact on the health and safety of both employees and local inhabitants of mining industry sites, it seems imperative to enhance them. The first part of this research surveys 45 backhoe and 22 loader excavator operators’ attitudes regarding their satisfaction about health and safety at workplace and gaseous pollutants, while the second measures gaseous pollutants levels in machines operation and compares it to regulation documents. The findings of gaseous pollutants’ measurements demonstrate that, even with new machines, there are occurrences where specific working condition parameters are exceeded. Mann-Whitney tests confirmed statistically significant differences between backhoe and loader excavator working conditions regarding measured average O2, NO and CO2, average overrun of NOx and relation between maximum relative value measured of NOx and allowed value in regulation documents, because the backhoe excavators have higher values of the examined parameters. The findings also show greater satisfaction of loader excavator operators, as Mann-Whitney tests confirmed statistically significant differences regarding importance of satisfaction with working environmental conditions, the air quality in the working environment and operators’ knowledge to maintain or improve health and safety. It is evident that the workplace of loader excavator operator has lower human health and safety risk levels then backhoe excavator operator workplace. The proposal for future research is deeper analysis of causes of those differences.