The module covers the key aspects of health, safety and environmental management that future managers, engineers will need to know and find useful in their future lives and careers. The course and material is biased towards the extractives industry and is pragmatic as well as academic in nature.

This module would be useful to any student of any discipline or pathway.

To provide the knowledge and skills necessary to undertake health and safety related activities, such as writing policies, assessing risks, managing major hazards and investigating accidents in their chosen occupations.

To provide an understanding of the socio-environmental impacts, both positive and negative that the extractive industry may have on society.

On successful completion of this module, you should be able to:

Module Specific Skills and Knowledge:

1 Appreciate the ever increasing role of health and safety in industry and be able to design and implement effective health and safety systems to minimize exposure to risk;

2 Assess and manage major hazards in the mining industry;

3 Describe and apply the principles of sustainable development;

4 Identify the major issues and management strategies associated with environment/social and community impacts of the mining industry;

Discipline Specific Skills and Knowledge:

5 Relate the theoretical information to the context of professional practice through analysis and synthesis of published information, collected data and practical observation;

Personal and Key Transferable / Employment Skills and Knowledge:

6 Analyse and synthesise material to produce a well researched evaluation of a practical problem in a report format developed through the mode of assessment, and presented to a professional standard.

Health & Safety Management (Major Topics):

- Introduction to accident prevention and health and safety in industry; terminology; reason for preventing accidents; moral, cost, legal; accident statistics and trends in industry;

- Accident aetiology: basic theories of accident causation, the role of human error in accidents, concept of active and latent failures; strategies for reducing human error;

- Health and safety management: introduction, systems approach, key elements of a health and safety management system, recent developments, practical aspects of health and safety management;

- Risk assessment and management: concept of risk assessment, subjective and quantitative risk assessment, organising for risk assessment and developing a risk management strategy;

- Health assessment and surveillance: health risks, health risk management, health surveillance programmes;

- Accident and incident investigations: need to investigation accidents, accident triangles, accident reporting, key elements of accident investigation;

- Safety culture and maturity: definitions, safety culture maturity models;

Sustainable Development (Major Topics):

- Sustainable development and the mining industry; international perspectives, the MMSD, GMI, EITI & other relevant performance standards;

- Environmental impacts of mining (dusts, noise, visual, mine waste);

- Environmental impact assessments including screening and scoping for EIA; risk management;

- Environmental management systems (ISO 14000 series), including drivers, benefits and advantages of; case studies;

- Environmental standards, surveys, licenses etc; environmental permitting; monitoring and auditing;

- Communities and mining;

- Climate change and adaptation in the mining industry;

- Mine closure and rehabilitation.

As above, one piece of Coursework (40%), and/or Examination (60%).

ELE: http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/

Reading list for this module: