Fighting fire with foam, the eco-friendly way

Grant and Award Announcement

VIRGINIA TECH

 

IMAGE: REZAWANNA ISLAM WORKS WITH A FOAM SAMPLE IN THE EXTREME LAB. view more 

CREDIT: ALEX PARRISH FOR VIRGINIA TECH

Two Virginia Tech researchers have been awarded $1.2 million to develop an electronic molecular toolbox that uses machine learning and analytical techniques to support the development of environmentally friendly, firefighting foam.

The funding has been granted by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, the environmental science and technology program of the Department of Defense.

Brian Lattimer, a professor of mechanical engineering, is the primary investigator for the project. He is joined by his colleague in mechanical engineering, Rui Qiao, and Tim Long, the director of the Arizona State University Biodesign Center for Sustainable Macromolecular Material and Manufacturing.

Replacing a harmful chemical

The initiative for the project came from legislation connected to the banning of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS are often called “forever chemicals,” as they are slow to break down once released into the environment. Growing evidence shows that PFAS can cause adverse health reactions in humans and wildlife.

These chemicals are currently found in aqueous film forming foams (AFFF) used by the Department of Defense (DOD) and airports to suppress liquid fuel fires from accidental spills as well as vehicle and aircraft accidents, and are slated to be discontinued by the DOD in 2023. While this will be a helpful measure for public health, the need for high-performance fire suppression remains a critical issue for the DOD.

AFFF extinguish fires by covering the surface of the fuel with a blanket of foam to prevent the release of vapors, Lattimer explained. This behavior is unique in that the foam is able to extinguish fires quickly and prevent reignition of the fuel. This allows firefighters to rapidly extinguish the fire, then walk over the foam to rescue people.

According to Lattimer, there are no environmentally friendly foams available that perform at the same level as AFFF. To discover potential solutions in a rapidly closing window of time, the group will use experiments and simulations at the molecular level to discover what makes the current AFFF so highly effective. They’ll then deploy machine learning to build mathematical models that predict the transport of fuel through surfactant solutions at a molecular level and suggest new molecules expected to limit fuel transport.

Using this approach, they hope to assist chemists in accelerating the development of high-performance, environmentally friendly foams for use by the DOD, airports, and other high-hazard liquid fuel storage facilities.

"Firefighting foams are not only used by DOD, but also at airports all over the world," said Lattimer. "In a situation such as a plane crash, time for passenger rescue is measured in seconds. It is critical that environmentally friendly foams can suppress fires as efficiently as AFFF to ensure life safety."

Bringing the specialists together

With three research groups teaming up from across two universities, the multidisciplinary research initiative will coordinate parallel efforts in chemical synthesis, experimental trials, and modeling to examine the interactions of fuels and foam, demonstrate how foam surfactant solutions behave differently in controlled scenarios, and provide insight on foam stability.

The three groups will continuously share insights from their experiments, culminating in a rapidly assembled body of data.

Lattimer’s group will investigate the properties and behavior of foam exposed to fuels from the nano-scale to the macro-scale, relaying these findings to Qiao's team to model the interactions mathematically. Long’s team at Arizona State will synthesize surfactant molecules, controlling specific geometric details to support the experimental effort in identifying surfactant features that most significantly impact resistance of fuel transport through the foam.

The team’s electronic molecular toolbox will include predictive models based on machine learning and a suite of complementary analytical methods that can be used by chemists to identify new environmentally friendly surfactants that might perform similar to AFFF. They aim to validate the toolbox for a range of different surfactants, so that it can be used by other scientists developing new firefighting foam formulations to accelerate discovery of future foams.

At the end of the project, the research team will share the electronic molecular toolbox with industry scientists working to develop new formulations, and will work with them to design new solutions. Lattimer and the team plan to roll that data out to industry scientists who will then be able to add to the dataset developed in this research to further enhance the model performance.

"Through this research, we hope to provide substantial evidence for the chemical structures that reduce fuel transport through foam," said Lattimer. "This data could provide chemists with tools to identify new solutions to achieve superior fire suppression performance, hopefully even above what has been used in the past."

Probing into life on Mars: implication from analog sites in Qaidam Basin, northwestern China

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

 

IMAGE: IN THE CENTER CAN BE SEEN (A) SAMPLING LOCATIONS OF DALANGTAN AND QARHAN IN THE QAIDAM BASIN; (B) DISTRIBUTION OF SURFACE SAMPLES; (C) SECTION DLT-P3; (D) SECTION CEH-P3. view more 

CREDIT: ©SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

Astrobiology is a scientific field that studies the origin,evolution, and distribution of life and habitability in the universe. Mars is the most promising planet for the discovery of extraterrestrial life in the solar system; thus, exploration of Martian life and habitable environment have been a special focus in planetary science.

Salts deposits are the key targets for exploring traces oflife on Mars, including possible organic molecules of biogenic origin. As there is no Martian sample returned to Earth, and human beings are not able to reach Mars for experiments to date, analogy researchs on Earth are the main method for studying life in Martian salt deposits.

The continuous drought, strong ultraviolet radiation and various landforms have made Qaidam Basin an ideal Martain analog site. In this paper, Dr. Cheng (School of Geography and Tourism, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics) and Dr. Xiao (State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, Planetary Science Institute, China University of Geosciences) determine the distribution of the lipid of the salt sediments in the Qaidam Basin (see image below)and compare these results with that of the typical Martain analog sites.

The team found that salt samples in the Qaidam Basin are enriched with fatty acid compounds, GDGTs and archaeol compounds were also detectedin these salt samples. Compared with the hypersaline samples, the clay samples not only have a higher abundance of fatty acids,GDGTs and archaeol compounds, but also a more diverse lipids composition. The distribution of lipids in the salt deposits from the Qaidam Basin provides an important reference for Mars.

See the article:

Distribution characteristics of lipids from salt sediments in QaidamBasin and their astrobiological significance

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-021-9812-2

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JOURNAL

Science China Earth Sciences

DOI

10.1007/s11430-021-9812-2 

Study led by NUS researchers reveals climate change increases fluvial sediment in the high mountains of Asia

The findings have far reaching implications for the region’s hydropower, food and environmental security

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

High Mountain Asia (HMA), which refers to the Tibetan Plateau and the surrounding high Asian mountains, is home to the world’s third-largest ice reservoir and the origin of many of Asia’s large rivers. In fact, these rivers are crucial lifelines for a third of the world’s population. The rivers in HMA are experiencing increased runoff and sediment fluxes from amplified climate change, glacier melt and permafrost thaw.

To examine the impact of these phenomena on HMA, Professor Lu Xixi and Dr Dongfeng Li from the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences led an international team of researchers to conduct a new analysis of observations of headwater rivers in the area. The study revealed that fluvial sediment loads have been increasing substantially, even much faster than river water discharge. This is due to the recent warmer and wetter climate, and has important implications for water quality, hydropower development and maintenance, and for the riverine carbon cycle.

Dr Li, Research Fellow from the NUS Department of Geography and the study’s lead author, said “Climate change is accelerating glacier retreat and permafrost thaw, resulting in the previously frozen landscapes becoming more erodible. Our study shows that emerging process, such as glacier retreat and permafrost thaw, will enhance the transport of sediments from slopes to river systems, especially when regional extreme rainstorms are also increasing. This has significant knock-on effects on the region’s hydropower, food and environmental security, potentially affecting millions of people in HMA and downstream regions.”

The results of the study were published today in Science Magazine.

 

Analysing flow and sediment load data in HMA headwaters

The project was done in collaboration with some of the world’s renowned scientists in the field of sediment transport including Associate Professor Irina Overeem, Prof Jaia Syvitski and Prof Albert Kettner from the University of Colorado, Boulder (CU-Boulder); Prof Des Walling from the University of Exeter; Prof Bodo Bookhagen from the University of Potsdam; and Prof Yinjun Zhou from the Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute, Wuhan, China.

The team collated and analysed available flow and sediment load data from rivers in HMA over a period of six decades to investigate changes in runoff and sediment flux in response to a warmer and wetter climate. To exclude the potential impact of human activities, 28 quasi-pristine headwater basins were selected. The team then studied the sensitivity of sediment flux to changing temperature and precipitation in HMA using observational data and a climate elasticity model.

Based on the study, the team estimated that the present-day fluvial sediment flux from HMA is nearly two billion metric tons per year, and could more than double by 2050 under an extreme climate change scenario.

“The cascade of impacts of climate change, first by planetary warming, then by amplified changes in alpine temperature and precipitation patterns, followed by melt and release of sediment from glaciers and frozen landscapes, and subsequently by increased sediment transport by rivers, demonstrates how planet Earth is being altered through our continued use of fossil fuels,” stated Prof Syvitski who is also former Chair of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme.

The team further reasoned that the increasing sediment loads have profound impacts on the maintenance of downstream hydropower reservoirs. “The increasing sediment inflow to reservoirs will decrease the storage capacity of the reservoirs, and thus reduce their expected lifespans. As a result, all reservoir services like water supply, irrigation, hydropower generation, and flood control will be negatively impacted”, said Prof Lu, Principal Investigator of the study.

Prof Overeem added, “Since the 1950s, amplified warming in the HMA headwaters has increased sediment loads at an average rate of 32 per cent for every one degree of warming. Thaw of this landscape now has already triggered profound change in soil erosion and sediment delivery to the rivers. Glaciers are known to be efficient sediment producers, but this study suggests that the role of permafrost thaw in longer-term climate and sediment cycles may be more important than previously thought.”.

The team noted that increased sediment concentrations will likely negatively impact water quality and aquatic ecosystems. Fine suspended sediment particle is an important vector for the transport of phosphorus and most heavy metals, such as mercury, chromium, arsenic, and lead. Thus, climate change is likely to increase sediment-associated nutrient and contaminant fluxes. Furthermore, suspended sediment is a key vector for organic carbon transport; and the precise role of erosion and sediment delivery in mobilising organic carbon from permafrost landscapes and delivering it to the fluvial system remains uncertain. The team shared that more observations were needed to assess the positive feedback between climate warming, permafrost degradation, and carbon cycling.

The researchers also added that a substantial proportion of the increased sediment could be temporarily deposited in the river system, wide alluvial valleys and river floodplains, aggrading riverbeds, potentially triggering river avulsions and increasing the risks of flooding, particularly during the monsoon season. However, increases in sediments are not always bad. Riverine sediments can be used as soils for local agriculture practices in the high mountain regions, and are important materials for construction and coastal protection structures in small island countries such as Singapore. For example, one billion tons of sediment can be used for the construction of two great walls of China.

“These unique long-term riverine datasets of many of the headwater rivers of the high-mountains of Asia made it possible to determine how the landscape is rapidly transforming under an amplified climate change. This amplified climate change is also observed at the polar regions, where unfortunately long-term river datasets are sparse. However, it would be very interesting to see how the landscape responds at those polar regions, if there are similarities and what the downstream implications could be for the communities and the environment,” said Prof Albert Kettner, Research Professor from the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at CU-Boulder.

Dr Li commented, “This study sheds light on the importance and potential implications of the marked increases in recent and future sediment fluxes that have not been fully recognised by scientific communities nor have they been fully taken into account in the assessment of potential changes in the global carbon cycle. We hope this will encourage more observations on fluvial sediment in the world’s cold environments.”

The next step for the research team is to develop a dynamic sediment transport model suitable for cold environments. This would help to better understand the seasonality of future fluvial sediment in a rapidly warming world.

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abi9649 

Runoff, sediment flux in High Mountain Asia could limit food, energy for millions

Average temperatures in high altitude areas have risen twice as fast as the global average, causing more river runoff and sediment flux, and the trend could get worse, scientists find

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER

Rivers flowing from the Tibetan Plateau and the surrounding high Asian mountains which support one-third of the world’s population have experienced rapid increases in annual water and sediment runoff since the 1990s, and the volume of sediment washed downstream could more than double by 2050 under the worst-case scenario, a team of scientists has found.

The cause is “amplified warming”: Since 1950, the High Mountain Asia area, or the region of Asia containing five mountain ranges including the Himalaya and Hindu Kush around the Tibetan Plateau, has warmed by about 2 degrees Celsius, twice the amount of warming worldwide. That warming is precipitating more glacier melt, permafrost thaw while annual rainfall is also increasing, the researchers note. 

“These findings have far-reaching implications for the region’s hydropower, food and environmental security,” the researchers observe. The findings also highlight the under-appreciated importance of sediment fluxes and have implications for potential changes in the global carbon cycle, they add.

The research, published today in the journal Science, is led by the National University of Singapore and includes three researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, including Irina Overeem, Jaia Syvitski and Albert Kettner, all researchers in the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. Overeem is also a CU Boulder associate professor of geological sciences, and Syvitski is professor emeritus of geological sciences. 

The scientists analyzed observational data of runoff and sediment fluxes from 28 headwater basins over the past six decades. 

Sediment flux is the mass of sediment that passes through a specific point in a river basin over a given time period, “like truckloads of sand being transported, in this case by water,” Overeem said. Although river runoff, the amount of water entering a river system, and sediment flux are both increasing, they are rising at different rates. 

In the river basins the scientists studied, runoff increased by about 5% per decade, while sediment flux increased about 12% per decade.

Overeem explained the variability is affected in two ways: “With glacial melt and permafrost thaw there are new sources of sediment, that previously had been frozen in place in the landscape now can slump into the river. In addition, if more rainfall triggers bigger floods, you suddenly have exceeded a threshold and you can pick up so much more sediment” compared to average conditions. “If you increase the source and the proportion of a couple of these extreme events, you'll get disproportionally much more sediment. So that is maybe what's going on in this system.”

River-borne sediment can benefit highly populated areas like Bangladesh, where sediment helps maintain the coastal zone. But in other areas such as Tibet or Nepal, which have hydro-electric power plants, rising levels of sediment can wear out the dams’ turbines and fill reservoirs with sand and silt. 

By harming existing or planned hydropower projects and reducing irrigation capacity, rising sediment fluxes can thus “threaten the region’s food and energy security,” the authors write. Additionally, the rising levels of sediment, which can carry nutrients, pollutants and organic carbon, can have implications for water quality and flooding, potentially affecting millions of people.

Research on the High Mountain Asia watershed was facilitated by the area’s unusually good, long-term records of streamflow and sediment flux, Overeem said, adding that datasets of similar quality do not exist for Greenland or the whole Arctic. 

In the Arctic, scientists have also recorded increases in water discharge from melting ice and increasing rainfall but have few measurements of sediment flux. 

“What is happening on the Tibetan plateau may be happening in the Arctic as well, but we just don't have enough long records there and observational support to really know that yet,” Overeem said. 

The research was led by Dongfeng Li and Xi Xi Lu of the National University of Singapore. 

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abi9649 

ARTICLE TITLE

Exceptional increases in fluvial sediment fluxes in a warmer and wetter High Mountain Asia

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-Oct-2021

 

Climate change: We're acting, but are we making a difference?

by University of Delaware

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

It's a big question: Is the world doing enough to adapt to the effects of climate change?

According to University of Delaware disaster researcher A.R. Siders, there are no easy answers, but scientists are looking at this problem from a variety of angles.

One approach, reported in Nature Climate Change on Thursday, Oct. 28, analyzed academic studies to create a first-of-its-kind data repository documenting how much adaptation is occurring globally and to explore whether these efforts have been effective. Siders, an assistant professor in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration and the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences, co-authored the study with an international group of colleagues.

The study revealed growing evidence that people and organizations are responding to climate change with a wide range of actions, but noted that far fewer studies explore whether these adaptation actions actually reduce risks associated with climate change.

As world leaders prepare for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) that begins next week, UDaily connected with Siders, whose expertise lies in climate change adaptation, to learn about the study.

Q: How did this study come about?

Siders: The global climate change agreement adopted at the 2015 Paris climate conference (COP21)—termed the Paris Agreement—calls for what's known as a "global stocktake" of adaptation to determine if society is doing enough to adapt to climate change. This is an enormous task and currently no good datasets exist to identify adaptation actions across the world at scale. So, a group of 126 global scientists and researchers, including me, got together to see if we could answer this question through the lens of academic studies.

We screened approximately 48,000 scientific journal articles on climate change and adaptation and filtered that down to 1,682 academic papers that document adaptation actions around the world. We analyzed those papers to figure out how much adaptation is happening, what types of adaptations are occurring and whether there is any evidence that these adaptation actions are reducing risks associated with climate change. The result is a massive database of all these studies that can help us begin to quantify and document global adaptation actions that are occurring and their effects.

Q: What did you learn?

Siders: We found that all over the world, in almost every sector, people are taking action to adapt to climate change, and that's really encouraging. Less encouraging is that the actions people are taking tend to be fragmented, representing small adjustments to business-as-usual rather than the type of transformation that may be needed. For example, in response to warmer temperatures, farmers are planting crops earlier and people are using air conditioning when it's hot. This raises a concern about whether what we're doing is enough to deal with the [expected] effects of climate change.

Q: How can we measure whether our adaptation efforts will be enough?

Siders: We expect that climate change will make life harder in a lot of ways. It's going to make it too hot to grow crops; there will be more droughts, heat waves, floods. Using floods as an example, the question becomes does elevating your home one foot actually make you safer from the floods or did you need to elevate three feet? Does building a floodwall actually reduce losses in the next hurricane or does it just push those losses somewhere else? This is difficult to assess but that's what we want to know, including how long these actions are effective … will elevating three feet be enough to keep you safe for the next decade or the next century? Scientists are working on ways to assess whether adaptation is enough, but right now, there isn't a uniform approach or tool for measuring how well adaptation actions reduce risks related to climate change. Complicating matters, whether we're doing 'enough' depends on how bad climate change is going to get, which depends on whether we cut emissions, so it's a whole feedback cycle.

Q: How do we address this lack of data about adaptation actions and their effects?

Siders: If we start identifying what tools are out there, then we can start seeing which ones could apply to other situations. For example, can a tool that addresses flood risk in the Solomon Islands also be used to address drought in Arizona? This new data set is a first step in gathering evidence, including how researchers are currently measuring risk reduction and how they are measuring and defining successful adaptation. For instance, do we only count risk reduction, meaning whether or not it kept you safer, or do we also account for whether it hurt or helped the economy, the environment or culture? These are questions that need answers.

Q: Where do you hope to see this work lead?

Siders: The goal of this paper is to provide some of the evidence that can inform the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) sixth assessment report. We know the data doesn't tell the whole story because it only looks at academic studies, not government reports, nonprofit reports, etc. But it is one data set that didn't exist before that we hope can be used as a baseline, now and in the future. Already, the project has led to a lot of spin-off papers. I was involved in papers on equity and adaptation, heat adaptation, and I'm working on other papers related to policy tools, ocean adaptation, climate migration and climate heritage using this database.

We hope to inspire new research into gap areas where we just don't have enough information or studies to be able to say conclusively what's happening, say, in under-researched regions of the world or under different warming levels or timespans. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of data that can help governments and practitioners make evidence-based decisions that take global efforts into account.Climate change: England must 'adapt or die,' agency warns

More information: Lea Berrang-Ford et al, A systematic global stocktake of evidence on human adaptation to climate change, Nature Climate Change (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-021-01170-y

Journal information: Nature Climate Change 

Provided by University of Delaware 

Exploring the rise of emissions in the shadow of global climate negotiations

by Anneli Björkman, Uppsala University

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

This November, world leaders will meet once again to negotiate and discuss measures to address the global climate crisis. The question is, will COP26 in Glasgow make any difference? A recently published research article identifies key reasons behind the world's 30-year record of failure to bring down global emissions.

"One common thread in the reviewed literature is power in its various forms," says Isak Stoddard, a doctoral student at the Department of Earth Sciences and one of the lead authors of the article.

On 31 October, representatives of almost 200 countries will gather in Glasgow, Scotland, for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26. On the agenda once again is the issue of reducing carbon dioxide emissions to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius as enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, any hopes that the world might be moving towards phasing out fossil fuels and aligning itself with such commitments have been clouded by recent reports of increased emissions.

The reasons behind the continued rise in global emissions were recently explored in a study published in the journal Annual Review of Environment and Resources. Lead authors of the study are Isak Stoddard and Kevin Anderson, visiting professor at Uppsala University's Department of Earth Sciences and former Zennström Professor of Climate Change Leadership. Together with 21 other researchers, including two from Uppsala University, they have sought explanations in nine key areas of knowledge: international climate governance, the vested interests of the fossil-fuel industry, geopolitics and militarism, economics and financialisation, mitigation modeling, energy supply systems, inequity, high-carbon lifestyles, and social imaginaries (collective images of how we might live).

Power is a common thread

The conclusion reached by the researchers is that a common, and thus far marginalized, perspective lies in the central role that power has played.

"Behind the delay in emission reductions are everything from geopolitical, military and industrial interests and modes of thought to the assumptions on which research and knowledge production are based in fields such as economics, energy and climate. This has contributed to a 60 percent rise in global carbon dioxide emissions since 1990, despite decades of international negotiations, research and all sorts of attempts to take action," says Isak Stoddard

Stoddard also sees the research community as part of the problem, given that its knowledge production has served to strengthen societal structures and interests that have contributed to creating and maintaining the emissions crisis.

"Researchers are part of a community that produces knowledge about climate issues. It's a matter of which questions we ask, and don't ask, as researchers and how we adapt our message to what we deem possible or acceptable within our current political and economic system."

Positioning within unsustainable societal systems

Other factors that have played an important role in the trajectory of emissions have to do with issues of inequity, as well as lock-ins to fossil-fuel dependent and energy-intensive lifestyles and visions of the future.

"We can also see that a large number of actors who previously viewed the challenge of climate change as a threat to their operations have begun to position themselves more proactively. While this may appear gratifying, one of the main conclusions of the article is that we need to understand climate change as part of a much greater problem and as an acute symptom of a highly unsustainable societal development, largely driven by powerful vested interests that constantly need to be questioned," says Isak Stoddard.

Is there any hope for improved conditions for progress during COP26?

"There is definitely value in holding such discussions between countries at this level. That said, our study has shown that, even if there has been criticism of the design of the United Nations Framework Convention [on Climate Change], deadlocks have generally been the result of strategic geopolitical considerations that have been decided long before the negotiations take place. The changes we need to see must also happen from the ground up and, of course, in different ways in all of the various societies and cultures around the world."A successful COP26 is essential for Earth's future. Here's what needs to go right

More information: Isak Stoddard et al, Three Decades of Climate Mitigation: Why Haven't We Bent the Global Emissions Curve? Annual Review of Environment and Resources (2021). DOI: 10.1146/annurev-environ-012220-011104

Provided by Uppsala University 

How mining companies can better protect workers from injury and death

by Edith Cowan University

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has identified some key causes of workplace fatalities in the Western Australian mining and resources sector, which could assist companies to reduce the number of workers injured on the job.

The study was comprised of two phases. First, researchers surveyed more than 2000 mining company employees from 2017-2019 to gain their perceptions of workplace safety and injury risk.

They used a questionnaire based on Professor Michael Quinlan's 2014 book 'Ten Pathways to Death and Disaster,' which outlines common risk factors for catastrophic work incidents.

Researchers then compared the questionnaire results to actual workplace fatalities to see if the way people perceived the injury risk at their workplace aligned with the results of the incidents.

The study identified four of Quinlan's pathways were regularly associated with WA mining deaths and are therefore a priority for action:

• Pathway 1: Design, engineering, technical and maintenance flaws
• Pathway 4: Failures in safety management systems
• Pathway 5: Failures in Auditing
• Pathway 9: Poor management—worker communication and trust

ECU Ph.D. candidate Tanya Jenke said the study could form as a blueprint for mining companies to ensure their worksites were as safe as possible.

"We aimed to assist the West Australian mining industry in learning from past fatalities and to provide direction for controlling fatality risks in the future," she said.

"The simplicity of the Ten Pathways makes them a valuable risk communication tool, and could readily be used to commence discussions, for example at safety meetings, or implemented in a reporting tool to allow companies to learn about safety matters more effectively.

"It could also be used as a self-audit tool or an internal company assessment to benchmark against the findings published in this study."

Leadership is crucial

In most cases, survey respondents with leadership roles, such as superintendents and managers, scored their organization's performance higher than employees in frontline positions.

Ms Jenke said this suggested communication and cultural issues, which could have serious ramifications.

"It highlights potentially dangerous gaps between employee expectations of management—such as prioritizing worker safety—and reality," she said.

"Additionally, those in leadership roles perceived a better worker relationship compared to employees in the front line. Mining organizations need to ensure systems and processes are in place to foster a collaborative and transparent work environment."

The office vs. the site

The study also noted significant differences in responses from those based in Perth and workers in other regions of WA, with regional respondents attributing lower scores than their city-based counterparts.

"This possibly indicates a disconnect between operating site and head office," Ms Jenke said.

"It may illustrate a difference between work as planned by the corporate office, versus work as done by the operations."

A rethink on reporting

Though the study recommends how mining companies should prioritize safety, Ms Jenke said organizations should address all 10 pathways, as they were developed from fatalities.

She said while some pathways did not appear in any WA mining fatality reports, it was likely due to how incidents were reported.

"We suggest that this may be a result of data on these pathways is not captured as part of the Fatality Register assessment and that they are contributing to fatalities," Ms Jenke said.

"Given that four pathways were most prominent in the DMIRS Fatalities Register and the remaining six were not, it is argued the type of information required for reporting does not require an organization to publicly address all ten pathways.

"It is recommended that reporting include a mechanism for addressing all ten pathways, so that other organizations can effectively learn from past fatal incidents."

The reearch was published in Safety Science.

Descriptions of the Ten Pathways

Pathway 1: Design, engineering, technical and maintenance flaws

The flaws in engineering, design and maintenance were mostly the result of poor decision making by management and were often known or should have been identified well before the fatal incident.

Pathway 2: Prior warnings or causes for alarm ignored

In many of the fatal incidents, Quinlan observed that clear warnings and causes for alarm were ignored. For example, prior to the Beaconsfield collapse the stress and seismicity of two previous rock falls were not properly managed or investigated to identify the root cause. In many cases, employees or supervisors had expressed their safety concerns prior to the fatal incident.

Pathway 3: Failures in risk assessment

Quinlan stated a causal factor of many of the fatal incidents was a failure to undertake risk assessments or undertake them accurately. Effective risk assessments are based on informed knowledge of the hazard, evaluation of the effectiveness of risk treatments and control measures, and monitoring and review of the situation to detect change in risk.

Pathway 4: Failures in management systems and hazard management plans

Quinlan reported that Work Health and Safety management systems which focus on behavioral change, Lost Time Injuries and poorly selected Key Performance Indicators can lead to complacency when it comes to major hazards. Furthermore, the catastrophic risk increases when well-documented procedures are not implemented and when there are major changes to work design, for example the increased use of contractors.

Pathway 5: Failures in auditing

Auditing ensures that Work Health and Safety Management Systems are designed and implemented effectively and identifies areas for improvement. Auditing needs to be rigorous across all parts of the Work Health and Safety Management System. Quinlan considered overly routinized audits that do not act on information may overlook catastrophic hazards.

Pathway 6: Economic pressures compromising safety

This pathway highlights the failure to control the influence of personal financial incentives and pressure on individuals to contribute to the production expectations. Quinlan stated that financial pressures such as the use of incentive- or bonus-based regimes are commonly found to undermine safety.

Pathway 7: Failures in regulatory oversight and inspection

The failure of the Regulator to provide feedback to an organization on their compliance with legislation and safety performance was found by Quinlan to be a common catastrophic incident pathway.

Pathway 8: Worker and others expressing concern prior to the incident

In most investigations it seemed to Quinlan to be remarkable how seldom workers were asked their views on safety at the mine, including evidence of concerns both prior to and pertaining to the incident. Quinlan found failure to heed well-founded concerns was a common pathway of mine fatalities.

Pathway 9: Poor management—worker communication and trust

This pathway concerns the flow of critical information to and from the workers as well as the willingness to act on that information. Quinlan found ineffective communication and trust may result in a variety of poor outcomes including mixed messages, inconsistent messages and lack of engagement with the work force which undermines their participation.

Pathway 10: Emergency and rescue resources and procedures

Effective emergency management procedures play a critical role in mitigating the escalation of an incident. Failure to develop and implement effective emergency management systems endanger lives including safeguarding rescue personnel.

Gold mine workers face risk of death in the community more than double that of non-miners

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More information: Tanya Jenke et al, Fatality risk management: Applying Quinlan's Ten Pathways in Western Australia's mining industry, Safety Science (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105494

Provided by Edith Cowan University 

How mining companies can better protect workers from injury and death

New Editch Cowan University research has identified some key causes of workplace fatalities in the mining and resources sector, which could assist companies to reduce the number of workers injured on the job.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS HAVE IDENTIFIED AREAS MINING COMPANIES CAN FOCUS ON TO REDUCE ON-SITE ACCIDENTS. view more 

CREDIT: UNSPLASH

New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has identified some key causes of workplace fatalities in the Western Australian mining and resources sector, which could assist companies to reduce the number of workers injured on the job. 

The study was comprised of two phases. First, researchers surveyed more than 2000 mining company employees from 2017-2019 to gain their perceptions of workplace safety and injury risk.  

They used a questionnaire based on Professor Michael Quinlan’s 2014 book ‘Ten Pathways to Death and Disaster’, which outlines common risk factors for catastrophic work incidents.   

Researchers then compared the questionnaire results to actual workplace fatalities to see if the way people perceived the injury risk at their workplace aligned with the results of the incidents. 

The study identified four of Quinlan’s pathways were regularly associated with WA mining deaths and are therefore a priority for action: 

• Pathway 1: Design, engineering, technical and maintenance flaws 

• Pathway 4: Failures in safety management systems  

• Pathway 5: Failures in Auditing  

• Pathway 9: Poor management – worker communication and trust   

 

ECU PhD candidate Tanya Jenke said the study could form as a blueprint for mining companies to ensure their worksites were as safe as possible. 

“We aimed to assist the West Australian mining industry in learning from past fatalities and to provide direction for controlling fatality risks in the future,” she said. 

“The simplicity of the Ten Pathways makes them a valuable risk communication tool, and could readily be used to commence discussions, for example at safety meetings, or implemented in a reporting tool to allow companies to learn about safety matters more effectively. 

“It could also be used as a self-audit tool or an internal company assessment to benchmark against the findings published in this study.” 

 

Leadership is crucial 

In most cases, survey respondents with leadership roles, such as superintendents and managers, scored their organization’s performance higher than employees in frontline positions.  

Ms Jenke said this suggested communication and cultural issues, which could have serious ramifications.  

“It highlights potentially dangerous gaps between employee expectations of management – such as prioritising worker safety - and reality,” she said. 

“Additionally, those in leadership roles perceived a better worker relationship compared to employees in the front line.  Mining organisations need to ensure systems and processes are in place to foster a collaborative and transparent work environment.” 

 

The office v the site 

The study also noted significant differences in responses from those based in Perth and workers in other regions of WA, with regional respondents attributing lower scores than their city-based counterparts. 

“This possibly indicates a disconnect between operating site and head office,” Ms Jenke said. 

“It may illustrate a difference between work as planned by the corporate office, versus work as done by the operations.” 

 

A rethink on reporting  

Though the study recommends how mining companies should prioritise safety, Ms Jenke said organizations should address all 10 pathways, as they were developed from fatalities. 

She said while some pathways did not appear in any WA mining fatality reports, it was likely due to how incidents were reported. 

“We suggest that this may be a result of data on these pathways is not captured as part of the Fatality Register assessment and that they are contributing to fatalities,” Ms Jenke said. 

“Given that four pathways were most prominent in the DMIRS Fatalities Register and the remaining six were not, it is argued the type of information required for reporting does not require an organisation to publicly address all ten pathways. 

“It is recommended that reporting include a mechanism for addressing all ten pathways, so that other organisations can effectively learn from past fatal incidents.” 

‘Fatality risk management: Applying Quinlan’s Ten Pathways in Western Australia’s mining industry’ was published in Safety Science. 

More research is being undertaken to look at employees’ perceptions on their organization’s ; those looking to take part in the project can complete an online survey, which will provide access to the latest edition of Safety Science and Ms Jenke’s full paper. 

To take part, click on the above link.

 

Quinlan Ten Pathways  

Pathway	Description of Pathway
Pathway 1:  Design, engineering, technical and maintenance flaws	The flaws in engineering, design and maintenance were mostly the result of poor decision making by management and were often known or should have been identified well before the fatal incident.
Pathway 2: Prior warnings or causes for alarm ignored	In many of the fatal incidents, Quinlan observed that clear warnings and causes for alarm were ignored. For example, prior to the Beaconsfield collapse the stress and seismicity of two previous rock falls were not properly managed or investigated to identify the root cause. In many cases, employees or supervisors had expressed their safety concerns prior to the fatal incident.
Pathway 3: Failures in risk assessment	Quinlan stated a causal factor of many of the fatal incidents was a failure to undertake risk assessments or undertake them accurately. Effective risk assessments are based on informed knowledge of the hazard, evaluation of the effectiveness of risk treatments and control measures, and monitoring and review of the situation to detect change in risk.
Pathway 4:  Failures in management systems and hazard management plans	Quinlan reported that Work Health and Safety management systems which focus on behavioural change, Lost Time Injuries and poorly selected Key Performance Indicators can lead to complacency when it comes to major hazards. Furthermore, the catastrophic risk increases when well-documented procedures are not implemented and when there are major changes to work design, for example the increased use of contractors.
Pathway 5:  Failures in auditing	Auditing ensures that Work Health and Safety Management Systems are designed and implemented effectively and identifies areas for improvement.  Auditing needs to be rigorous across all parts of the Work Health and Safety Management System.  Quinlan considered overly routinized audits that do not act on information may overlook catastrophic hazards.
Pathway 6: Economic pressures compromising safety	This pathway highlights the failure to control the influence of personal financial incentives and pressure on individuals to contribute to the production expectations.  Quinlan stated that financial pressures such as the use of incentive- or bonus-based regimes are commonly found to undermine safety.
Pathway 7:  Failures in regulatory oversight and inspection	The failure of the Regulator to provide feedback to an organisation on their compliance with legislation and safety performance was found by Quinlan to be a common catastrophic incident pathway.
Pathway 8:  Worker and others expressing concern prior to the incident	In most investigations it seemed to Quinlan to be remarkable how seldom workers were asked their views on safety at the mine, including evidence of concerns both prior to and pertaining to the incident. Quinlan found failure to heed well-founded concerns was a common pathway of mine fatalities.
Pathway 9:  Poor management – worker communication and trust	This pathway concerns the flow of critical information to and from the workers as well as the willingness to act on that information.  Quinlan found ineffective communication and trust may result in a variety of poor outcomes including mixed messages, inconsistent messages and lack of engagement with the work force which undermines their participation.
Pathway 10: Emergency and rescue resources and procedures	Effective emergency management procedures play a critical role in mitigating the escalation of an incident.  Failure to develop and implement effective emergency management systems endanger lives including safeguarding rescue personnel.

 

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JOURNAL

Safety Science

DOI

10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105494 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Fatality risk management: Applying Quinlan’s Ten Pathways in Western Australia’s mining industry

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Oct-2021

COI STATEMENT

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper