Hand Injuries at Work

Where I work, we deal with several different pinch points and constrained spaces. We also deal with a lot of moving equipment, so the dangers exist in regards to potential injuries. I was standing above this rather large bin into which a conveyor belt drops material into. The conveyor stopped because a roller which has a sensor on it stopped moving. A bunch of dirt had built up around it, so I had to take a hose and spray water around the roller to remove the dirt build-up to get the conveyor going again. In front of this roller, a spray bar had been installed, but it wasn't doing a very good job in keeping the dirt build-up at bay (a spray bar is basically a pipe with nozzles installed on it to keep a conveyor pan free of dirt and mud). So I went to temporarily remove the spray bar, but it was stuck in the mud. I quickly yanked up on the spray bar when I caught by thumb on some metal that was sticking out. Instant pain. The white part of my thumbnail has a rather large blue spot on it and its still quite sore. I imagine it will be sore for a few days if not longer. But I can guarantee its not broken, otherwise I know it'd be in excruciating pain. Still, it's no fun to have a hand injury.

This isn't the first time I've gotten fingers bruised. It seems like it was only three or four months ago when I suffered a similar injury with the middle finger on my right hand. I've pinched fingers against a bar and a wall while trying to unclog a feeder and I've even jammed a thumb while yanking on a chain valve to open it. Finger and hand injuries are common in the line of work that I do. Luckily and thankfully, I have yet to break a finger - and its not something I'd want. Hopefully I can keep these injuries to a minimum and try to be more careful on the job.

Our department has a nice streak going for it, though. We are currently three years and two months since we've last experienced a lost-time accident. A lost-time accident consists of an employee being injured on the job and being out of work for a day or more because of that injury. The last time it happened was when an individual fell through an opening in the floor. Luckily he survived but was severely injured and missed quite a bit of time from work. He's back to work but he still experiences discomfort from the injuries he suffered in the fall. The sad part about that particular incident was that this employee basically fell right into a trap. The area around the hole in the floor had not been barricaded off. A maintenance employee lifted a covering off the hole and had left the area. Thus, leading to the individual in our department falling about ten feet to the level below. Certainly a scary situation and hopefully one that none of us will have to encounter in the future.

So it's easy to see how a person can get hurt while working at a mine. After all, we do wear hardhats in case falling objects hit us in the head. But they're mainly there in case we bump our heads into anything, because we certainly do have our fair share of constrained areas. Mining is not for everyone. It's hot, dirty, there's a potential for injury, and there's often a lot of heavy lifting. It's not glamorous that's for sure. At least it pays well; or I should say, it better pay well, anyways.

Work Can Be Dangerous

For those that may be unaware of what I do for a living, I work at an iron ore mining facility. It is one of two in the area that I live and is also one of the largest employers in the area. It's a modernized mining facility in that it's an above ground mine - where ore is extracted from an open pit, brought to a primary crusher, and is sent inside the concentrator where the ore is further ground down into a slurry. From that point, it is filtered and set to the pelletizing plant where it gets balled up into small pellets which then get shipped to various steel mills in the country. Obviously the process is a lot more detailed than that and it's actually quite an extraordinary process. I am amazed how complex it is and the fine tuning it must have gone through to get where we are today to make steel. I actually find it pretty cool to be able to work where I do and on most days, I enjoy it. I doubt that I would've stayed very long if I didn't find it satisfying. And although it is a modernized mining facility, it still can be a dangerous place. There are many moving pieces of machinery where any person can easily lose limbs or even their lives. We witnessed that back in 2005 where an individual lost his life in the pellet plant. It's easy to lose concentration while at work and it's particularly dangerous where I work. As long as a person stays level headed and focuses on the job, they won't get hurt. But even then, something can get you when you least expected it. That nearly happened to me this past Sunday morning.

Now keep in mind, I was at no risk in losing my life in this particular instance. It wasn't that serious, but it could've been a situation that sidelined me from work for awhile. We were preparing to shut down a grinding line for a maintenance repair. One of the things we do to grind down a line is to rake the apron feeders that dispense the dirt onto a conveyor belt that travels to a primary mill. The apron feeders need to be raked so that the maintenance personnel working inside the discharge chutes of the feeder and the conveyor belt below don't get seriously injured by falling material from above. So what we have to do is extend a rake inside the feeder to pull out any potentially dangerous falling material. I was doing this on early Sunday morning, midnight shift. I was raking a rather large boulder out of the apron feeder when it started to drop from the discharge chute. My right hand was clenched around the handle of the feeder and as I pulled back, my hand got wedged up against a pipe about five feet away from the discharge end of the feeder. As the rock fell, it pushed up my hand against the pipe and nearly crushed my hand. Thankfully it was only a near miss and not something more serious. I think my hand was positioned just enough that it didn't break and the force of the rock coming down against the rake was more of a glancing blow near my pinky finger knuckle. It didn't help that I nearly did the exact same thing shortly thereafter - as if I didn't learn my lesson once. Raking feeders is something I did not do a whole lot of but it's definitely not an easy job to do. The lighting back in that area is not very good, especially inside the feeder where lights cannot physically exist. It was just one of those situations that ended up being a lot better than what it could've been and I am thankful I am not nursing a broken right hand at this point. Otherwise, I couldn't be writing a blog to you right now!

That's not the first injury I encountered while working at the mine. Most of them have involved wounds to my fingers. There are a lot of pinch points, particularly inside apron feeders. A lot of times they get hung up - where rocks lock together just right and block the feeder. This is where we need to insert a thin steel rod inside the feed end of the apron feeder and knock down the blockage. When the rocks come down, it's loud and pretty dusty. If your hanging onto the rod, it'll jostle you around if you're not prepared. I have never been injured from knocking down a hung feeder, thank goodness. But I have gotten hurt fingers from unplugging the discharge end of a feeder before. We use this thick feeder bars to unblock feeders and sometimes you hit your fingers against the edges of the feeder doors. I did that a few months ago with my thumb and it hurt like crazy. Not only was my thumb sore for a couple of weeks, but it was bruised. They say you are supposed to report injuries even if they are minor, but this one I didn't feel the need because I knew if would heal in time. Sure enough, it's back to normal now. If I feel I've done something to myself that could require medical attention at some point, I'll report it. But that particular incident I felt I would be okay.

This next injury was one I felt pretty foolish doing then and now I just have to laugh at myself - and one I ended up reporting. We are able to drive these small electric carts inside the mill to get from one end of the plant to the other. They really save on the legs and feet, that's for sure. I was driving one of these carts when I made a right turn. The steering wheel on the cart was rather stiff and I took the corner too sharply. I ended up flying into a steel beam and hitting my right knee pretty hard on the dash edge of the cart. Needless to say, there wasn't any cushion on the dash and I was writhing in pain. I was able to walk it off and it felt pretty good, although my knee still felt pretty stiff. I didn't know if I ended up doing something serious to my knee that may need to be looked at down the road, so I reported it. I never did need to have it looked at and it heeled just fine in a week or two. But still, it is one of those incidents I won't quickly forget and it really reinforced my safety while driving a cart.

I've strained my thumb, hurt an index finger, and strained my back a couple of different times at work. But it comes with the territory of working at such a place like a mine. The goal for every person there is to work injury free 365 days a year. Sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. But any injury that occurs, as long as it remains minor, then we're all better off. It's certainly pretty easy to take things for granted there. That's why it's always important to keep your head in the game and to perform all tasks as safe as possible.