Page 74 76 Mine Rescuers Contd from pg 70 person and a Briefng Ofcer Each team member has diferent responsibilities during a mine res cue For example the Captain is primarily responsible for decision making and under normal circum stances should not be helping with laborious tasks whereas the No 3 and 4 persons are doing the major ity of these tasks The study results are published and available online in the Journal of Occupational and Environmen tal Medicine in March 2019 Dr Dorman s research team ob tained the participation of 76 of the 135 mine rescuers participating in the mine rescue competition The briefng ofcers who remained above ground were not included W e outftted participating mine rescuers with wearable technol ogy so we could monitor and mea sure the physiological responses their bodies were going through while they were responding to the mining emergency explains Dr Dorman The wearable monitor Equivita lTM was strapped around the chest of the participant and re layed data back in realtime about their heart rate heart rate variabil ity respiration rate energy expen diture oxygen consumption skin temperature and core body tem perature The monitor can also tell you what position the rescuer is in so you would know whether they have fallen or tripped on something Dr Dorman says In addition the real time results could be viewed by the Briefng Ofcer above ground in forming himher about the health of each team member and in this particular case was also available for the spectators who came to watch the competition via remote video giving them a sense of how hard the rescuers were working T o mimic a real life emergency the mine rescue teams were unaware of what they would face until they were called to respond to the simu lated emergency During the competition each mine rescue team had to go through a series of simulated incidences in their rescue call First they en countered an unconscious casu alty and a casualty in shock The rescuers treated the victims and readied them to be taken to the surface Second they battled a simulated blaze by building a bar ricade from various materials like bricks fre retardant and beams Third the rescuers had to extricate an injured worker impaled on a steel post but still alive They had to extricate him from the post pro vide frst aid to treat his wound and fnally the rescuers had to load the injured worker onto a rescue bas ket with a trolley and remove him up a steep incline to an exit route The results showed that the Cap tains physical loading and heat stress were lowest compared to all other team members Nonethe less all tasks and team positions incurred high physical load and heat strain throughout the rescue The Captain has the responsibil ity of making decisions but if his or her health is being impacted by the stress and heatrelated fac tors their decision making abilities may be impaired Dorman says In that case the fndings indicate that the briefng ofcer may be the best person to make key de cisions around whether the team can continue the rescue based on the health information provided to himher about the underground rescuers ie through the wearable monitoring Based on the results of the study s fndings Dr Dorman also recom mends that ftness training be in stituted for all volunteer mine res cuers so they can better endure the extremes they encounter in an emergency In 2015 Ontario conducted a com in mine rescue competition take part in study Page 72