Coal Mine Safety Alert: Vapes and Contraband Banned as Ignition Risks

A surge in reports of prohibited items, including vapes, being brought into coalmines has prompted a safety alert from the state's mining health regulator. Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) has investigated six cases of contraband in mines over the past five months, a significant increase from previous years.

Risk of Ignition

Kerri Melkersson, executive director of the Safety in Mines Testing and Research Station, said these items pose an "unacceptable ignition risk".

"Underground coal mines may contain methane gas and combustible coal dust," she said. "So, any ignition source has the potential to trigger a fire or a catastrophic explosion, which obviously can cause multiple injuries, even fatalities."

Ms Melkersson found vapes to be exceptionally powerful after conducting tests.

"Some people may say, 'Look, it's just a vape, how dangerous can it be?'" she said. "What we were able to demonstrate was that the heating elements inside vapes can reach temperatures in excess of 250 degrees Celsius when they're in use."

"They can generate over 100 times more energy than is necessary to ignite gas in an underground coal mine."

Previous Incidents

The RSHQ had not received any reports of miners bringing vapes into mines until this year, with the last reported incident of contraband entering underground coal mines occurring in 2012. An incident involving an e-cigarette exploding in a West Australian mine left a worker with severe burns and was compared to "fireworks going off".

Call to Action

Ms Melkersson urged operators to continue checking their procedures.

"Supervisors need to be checking their workers' understanding and, basically, operators need to continue to check the effectiveness of their controls," she said. "The message has to be really clear: no vapes, no lighters, no contraband underground."