Abstract

The need in considering changes (including sharp) of the atmospheric pressure during the operation of deep open pits as one of the unfavorable factors is substantiated. It is believed that the atmospheric pressure in a particular region varies slightly-within 30–40 mm Hg per year. But at the present time, when only in Russia there are five open pits with a depth of 500 m and more, it is impossible to ignore changes in the atmospheric pressure in relation to workers moving, for example, by motor transport, from the surface to the bottom of the open pit and back. In this case, it can change by 50 or more mm Hg in half an hour. To solve the related problems, it is required to find out how atmospheric pressure affects the blood pressure of the open pit workers. The experience of the Dead Sea Clinic located in Israel at the Dead Sea at a depth of more than 400 m below the sea level is taken as a basis. Long-term measurements of the blood pressure in patients of the clinic revealed a tendency to decrease it by an average of 10–20 mm Hg. To prevent the adverse effect of a sharp change in the atmospheric pressure on people working in deep open pits, it is required to provide for appropriate measures of a different nature: technological (provide for changes in the characteristics of the open pit roads to ensure smoother descents and ascents of the dump trucks); technical (use of the conveyor and combined transport); organizational (including changes in the work and rest regimes of the working employees); regulatory (amendments to the relevant safety rules and other normative documents). To apply the results obtained in the open pit mining, it is necessary to conduct appropriate research in the operating deep open pits.

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