Alcohol Consumption in the Australian Mining Industry: The Role of Workplace, Social, and Individual Factors

Background: Coal miners have been reported to have higher rates of risky/harmful alcohol misuse; however, it is not known if metalliferous mining employees whose working conditions differ in workplace practices, also have increased rates of risky/harmful alcohol misuse. This study aimed to examine alcohol consumption in a sample of Australian metalliferous mining workers and to examine the demographic and workplace factors associated with risky/harmful alcohol use. Methods: All employees from a convenience sample of four Australian mine sites were invited to complete a paper-based cross-sectional survey between June 2015 and May 2017. The survey contained questions relating to social networks, health behaviors, psychological distress, demographic characteristics, and risky/harmful drinking. Current alcohol use was measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), a validated measure of risky and/or harmful drinking. Factors associated with risky/harmful drinking were investigated using univariate and multivariable logistic regression. Findings: A total of 1,799 participants completed the survey (average site response rate 95%). Overall, 94.8% of males and 92.1% of females reported using alcohol in the preceding 12 months. The odds of risky/harmful alcohol use were significantly higher in those who were male, younger, and reported higher psychological distress. Conclusions/Application to Practice: This study identified that metalliferous mining employees engage in at-risk levels of alcohol consumption significantly higher than the national average despite workplace policies and practices that restrict alcohol use. Personal and workplace risk factors that may help target specific employee groups and inform the development of tailored, integrated multicomponent intervention strategies for the industry were identified.

Knowledge Activists on Health and Safety: Workmen-Inspectors in Metalliferous Mining in Australia 1901-25

Worker campaigns for a more direct say in protecting their health and safety are a significant but under-researched subject in labour history. Largely overlooked are the attempts by coalminers in the UK, Australia and Canada to establish mechanisms for representation on health and safety in the 1870s. This push for a voice then spread to New Zealand, France, Belgium and other countries, with unions eventually securing legislative rights to inspect their workplaces a century before workers in other industries gained similar entitlements. In Australia metalliferous miners’ unions followed coalminers in initiating a parallel campaign for the right to appoint their own mine-site and district inspectors (known as “check-inspectors”) from the late nineteenth century. This article examines the struggle for and activities/impact of workmen-inspectors in Australian metalliferous mines, including adoption of the competing UK-Australian and Continental-European models. It finds the development conforms to a resistance rather than mutual-cooperation perspective with check-inspectors performing the role of “knowledge activists.” The article argues this finding is not only relevant to understanding more recent experience of worker involvement in occupational health and safety but also demonstrates the relevance of historical research to contemporary regulatory policy debates and union strategies.

Fronteras de la minería en la Patagonia sur Argentina

ResumenLa Patagonia sur es desde la década de 1990 territorio de expansión de la minería por parte de grandes capitales transnacionales. Con yacimientos a ambos lados de la cordillera de los Andes, se trata de una actividad inscrita en dinámicas globales de avance de las fronteras de mercantilización de la naturaleza, potenciada por reformas neoliberales. Luego de más de veinte años, los dispositivos que deberían apuntar a aprovechar la renta minera para mejorar las condiciones de reproducción de la población, muestran que estos objetivos no solo no se cumplieron sino que redundaron en empeoramiento de esta situación. En este trabajo se expone un marco para interpretar estos procesos, en un segundo momento se describe el estado actual de la minería en la Patagonia sur y en particular en la Provincia de Santa Cruz, y en tercer lugar algunas de las consecuencias sociales de los problemas ambientales provocados por la actividad así como el estado actual de las resistencias. Al fnalizar se aportan algunas reflexiones a modo de conclusión.Palavras clave: Producción del espacio. Fronteras. Mercantilización de la naturaleza. Minería metalífera. Hidrocarburos. Patagonia sur.BORDERS OF MINING IN SOUTH PATAGONIA ARGENTINAAbstractSince the 1990s, southern Patagonia has been a territory for the expansion of mining by large transnational capitals. With deposits on both sides of the Andes mountain range, it is an activity inscribed in global dynamics of advancing the frontiers of the commodification of nature, promoted by neoliberal reforms. After more than twenty years, the devices that should aim to take advantage of the mining income to improve the reproduction conditions of the population, show that these objectives were not only not fulfilled, but also led to a worsening of this situation. In this work a framework is presented to interpret these processes, in a second moment the current state of mining in Patagonia and in particular in the Province of Santa Cruz is described and in third place some of the social consequences of the environmental problems provoked by the activity as well as the current state of the resistances. When finalizing some reflections are contributed by way of conclusion.Keywords: Production of space. Borders. Commodification of nature. Metalliferous mining. hydrocarbons. Southern Patagonia.

Metallophytes on Zn-Pb mineralised soils and mining wastes in Broken Hill, NSW, Australia

The wastes of metalliferous mining activities produce a substrate that is generally unfavourable for normal plant establishment and growth. However, metallophytes have evolved to grow in hostile environments that are rich in metals. They possess key properties that commend them for revegetation of mines and metal-contaminated sites. This field survey aimed to identify native metallophytes occurring on minerals wastes and mineralised outcrops in Broken Hill (New South Wales, Australia). Foliar concentrations of minerals were very high compared with non-mineralised soils but within the range expected for plants in such environments. Neither hyperaccumulators nor obligate metallophytes have been found, but they may be present on isolated mineralised outcrops in the wider Broken Hill area; however, a range of facultative metallophytes was identified in this study. These species could be introduced onto mining leases if establishment protocols for such species were developed.

Corrigendum to: Metallophytes on Zn-Pb mineralised soils and mining wastes in Broken Hill, NSW, Australia

The wastes of metalliferous mining activities produce a substrate that is generally unfavourable for normal plant establishment and growth. However, metallophytes have evolved to grow in hostile environments that are rich in metals. They possess key properties that commend them for revegetation of mines and metal-contaminated sites. This field survey aimed to identify native metallophytes occurring on minerals wastes and mineralised outcrops in Broken Hill (New South Wales, Australia). Foliar concentrations of minerals were very high compared with non-mineralised soils but within the range expected for plants in such environments. Neither hyperaccumulators nor obligate metallophytes have been found, but they may be present on isolated mineralised outcrops in the wider Broken Hill area; however, a range of facultative metallophytes was identified in this study. These species could be introduced onto mining leases if establishment protocols for such species were developed.