Lessons Learned: Sago and Darby Disasters - The Missing Component in SCSR Training

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Since 2006 there have been three major catastrophic mine explosions in the United States resulting in nineteen fatalities. Subsequent research studies conducted by the United States Department of Labor - Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The Pennsylvania State University Miner Training Program, and the West Virginia Office of Miner's Health, Safety, and Training all have concluded that a lack of training on the use of the Self-Contained Self-Rescuer (SCSR) units was a major factor that contributed to the fatalities. Every miner worker in the U.S. is required to carry an SCSR and have access to additional units within the mine. Miners are given very cursory Level 1 training, consisting of a demonstration of how to don the unit; but the psychological factors of using the device are largely ignored during training, leading to incorrect use of the SCSR. The goal of this program Lessons Learned from the Darby and Sago Mine Disasters, will be to produce a Phase I working prototype of an interactive training program and a follow-on serious game in Phase II to assess the ability of miners to correctly use the SCSR oxygen supply device in the event of a catastrophic mine disaster. The program will be designed to be delivered on DVD, eLearning, and mLearning platforms in English and Spanish and meet federal 508 compliance standards for the hearing impaired (a common problem for this worker population). The three formats are proposed to be tested and evaluated in Phase I to determine the learning achieved and the acceptance level of each delivery system. The PI/PD and our team have successfully developed and deployed hard skills and soft skills health and safety training in all three formats to government and commercial organizations. The content will include a brief refresher on the hands-on classroom experience offered to miners. However, we will concentrate on those areas of content that are not being covered and have been determined in research studies to have contributed to the death of the miners involved in the explosions. Those content areas which we refer to as expectations training will include: responses by miners to a traumatic incident including physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral changes resulting from use the SCSR due to a catastrophic mine event. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The goal of this program is to design a proof of concept, training program using advanced multimedia training technologies, including eLearning, DVD blended learning, and mLearning (mobile), with the intention of reducing injuries and fatalities in the mining community that are related to the use of the Self- Contained Self Rescuer (SCSR) unit.