Mine safety warning
AT LEAST two Central Queensland mine workers having near-misses around high-pressure hosing has prompted an industry-wide warning. Those near-misses, combined with another in New South Wales where a worker was hit in the head by a hydraulic hose, forced the Queensland Department of Mines to send out the alert.
The incredibly-high pressure hydraulics of underground machinery means that a leak in these hoses - which would cause it to flail wildly - creates a liquid beam so powerful, it can slice off limbs.
CMFEU safety representative Tim Whyte said if that liquid beam broke skin and entered the bloodstream, an infection could spread throughout the body.
"This is a safety alert saying that people must put things back the way they should be, and not work on them if something is wrong."
