Heat illness is a spectrum of disorders due to environmental exposure to heat. There is a growing need to combat worker heat exposure in mines, as a function of increasing mine depth. Vale’s Thermal Management Program is designed to protect workers from the hazards of hot conditions, but in dynamic work environments, and among workers with varying personal factors, it’s difficult to implement heat stress programs accurately. This project will describe the physiological states of underground mine workers, to understand the level of heat strain sustained at Creighton Mine, owned by Vale, Canada. The intern will describe mine worker’s workloads and work tasks, and quantify worker’s personal perceptions of heat stress and recovery, during a typical shift.

The objective of this project is to describe heat stress levels, work loads (in calories, oxygen consumption and heart rate demands) and hydration status in mine workers at the face. Trial one type of wearable technology to monitor heat strain. Information from this study will be used to make recommendations for Vale’s Thermal Management Program.