Safety tools for the trades

A Spokane scientist is developing a portable tool to help detect trapped miners more quickly, equipment that could speed response to disasters like the Crandall Canyon Mine cave-in that trapped six workers in Utah last month.

Some of his colleagues at a federal worker-safety research lab here have invented an emergency-stop button for commercial salmon fishing vessels aimed at preventing fishermen from being crushed in powerful, net-hoisting winches.

Another researcher is experimenting with equipment to prevent road workers from being run over by heavy machinery.

Once dedicated to mine safety, the 56-year-old local National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Spokane Research Laboratory has expanded its focus to developing technologies and techniques for other industries. The lab is one of five NIOSH facilities nationwide seeking to commercialize technology to protect workers.

In spring 2005, NIOSH signed an agreement with Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute allowing the organizations to negotiate for licensing agreements. That agreement has not led to any deals yet, but officials from both organizations hope the emergency-button technology could pave the way for future efforts.

“Hopefully that’s the tip of the spear of what this agency is,” said Ted Teske, health communications specialist. “We create things that solve safety problems, and it’s a great opportunity for people to work with us to create these, to commercialize them.”

While the original agreement called for Sirti and NIOSH to split proceeds from any deals, Sirti now just wants to help the local lab and create jobs in Eastern Washington, said John Overby, director of client services for Sirti.

“Anything we can do to help them, that’s why we’re here,” Overby said.

A U.S. Bureau of Mines office until 1996, the lab today employs about 70, including some students and professors, said spokeswoman Elaine Cullen.

The lab, 315 E. Montgomery Ave., occupies about 50,000 square feet, including offices, machine and electronics shops, a library and two large research bays. In the basement, employees have turned a former fallout shelter into the “Silver Kid Mine,” a replica of mines in the region complete with a deafening ventilation system, dripping water and drill.

The lab is working on about 10 projects, which could take several years each, Cullen said.

NIOSH, a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, licenses about two or three projects and applies for a few patents yearly, said Janice Huy, deputy director of NIOSH’s technology transfer office. The institute recently saw success commercializing a wipe, developed in Denver and Cincinnati, that law enforcement agencies can use to test surfaces for methamphetamine, she said.

Ear to the ground

In Spokane, research geophysicist Peter Swanson has tested a portable system to detect vibrations from trapped miners.

It took the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, which oversees mine rescues, about a day and a military cargo plane to bring a truck-mounted seismograph to Utah to locate vibrations at the scene of the Crandall Canyon Mine last month.

“What we are looking for is something that can be made inexpensive and rapidly deployable so the first responders can have some instrumentation stored locally,” Swanson said.

“And then they can get to the mine site very quickly and start to listen for the trapped miners before all of the noise sources come with a full-blown rescue operation,” which could include helicopters, trucks and drills.

The yellow, handheld unit connects to a truck battery for power, a laptop to process data and cables lined with small geophones – spikes that pick up vibrations.

Early tests have detected pounding through more than 1,000 feet of rock, but loose soil could affect its accuracy, Swanson said.

The trapped miners were believed to be about 1,500 feet underground, according to the mine safety administration. While the system won’t have the range of the larger one, it could help the agency mark a search area for a bigger system to target, spokesman Matthew Faraci said in an e-mail. Another possible candidate for technology transfer is a project to implement seismic-monitoring networks at mines to alert companies to possible collapses.

The solar-powered units measure horizontal and vertical shaking, radioing data about the position and severity of events to a nearby town, Swanson said. A high-speed Internet connection feeds information back to the lab.

A federal official testifying before Congress after the Crandall Canyon disaster suggested monitoring mines that are prone to collapse, which could create a market for such networks, he said.

A dangerous catch

Commercial fishing is “terribly dangerous work,” said NIOSH engineer Bob McKibbin, but he and other lab researchers hope to make it a little safer through their emergency-stop button for capstan winches.

A particular problem for crews of purse seiners, which fish for salmon and herring off Alaska, is getting caught in winches used to pull in nets, he said. McKibbin on Wednesday used a mock winch to demonstrate how fishermen throw a line around rotating spools. But instead of a thin blue rope like he used, fishermen wrestle with lines up to 1 1/2 inches thick with a pull of as much as 10,000 pounds, McKibbin said.

“If he slips at just the wrong moment, he could get caught in here, and if his torso gets caught, he could be crushed just to nothing,” McKibbin said.

Researchers engineered and placed an emergency-stop switch on the winch to halt it. It’s been tested on three boats and is ready for commercialization, McKibbin said.

“If he gets caught, he has to act very quickly, within probably less than half a second. This button is located in such a position that it allows him to do that,” he said. To commercialize the emergency button, Sirti could help the lab look to local manufacturers, Overby said.

Backing up safely

Another researcher in Spokane is adapting mining technology to help make construction workers safer around vehicles that are backing up.

Todd Ruff, an electrical engineer, said he just finished a test with Inland Asphalt Co. workers grading Maple Street. The system uses a magnetic field to detect workers who are too close to vehicles, sending alerts to both operators and workers who may be in danger. While it needs modification, it could be marketed, he said.

Also at the lab, Cullen and Teske make worker training videos, such as one about deck safety for commercial fishermen. Other lab employees use three-dimensional computer software.

“It isn’t our job just to sit here and think wonderful scientific thoughts,” Cullen said. “If we can’t get our research into practice somewhere, it doesn’t matter.”