Published in the June 2011 Australian Longwall Magazine

Also a consultant dietitian for Channel Ten’s Biggest Loser program and the Newcastle Knights, Watson hasn’t seen any dents in the overall trend of growing waistlines in the coal industry since he last spoke to Australian Longwall Magazine two years ago.

“Nationwide statistics using thousands of data points indicate about 80% of miners are overweight or obese,” he said, adding that the mining industry was well above the Australian average (67% of males and 52% of females are classified as overweight or obese).

As mining industries are likely to remain male-dominated, Watson said some projections forecast about 90% of Australia’s miners would be in this boat in ten years.

While this statistical work is based on the body mass index, which overlooks athletic builds, Watson said BMI was a very good population indicator. Data comparisons of men’s girth sizes to BMI scores also revealed a 90% correlation.

“Our height is not increasing at the rate our girth is,” he said. “It’s not as though these bigger men are walking around with bigger biceps and pec muscles – they are just walking around with bigger guts.”

While the toughest battle is convincing overweight people to take action, Watson’s formula for keeping the flab at bay remains the same: mastering your diet (what comes in) and exercise (what goes out).

Yet his work with open cut and underground coal mines is becoming more focused on the major safety risk of fatigue.

He recently conducted a survey of a notable open cut coal mine that revealed 76% of the respondents experienced fatigue symptoms on a fortnightly basis.

“What is more startling is that 70% of this workforce had never reported fatigue to anyone onsite” said Watson.

“Workers in the mining industry are experiencing fatigue but they are not reporting it. This means it’s not being managed.”

An open cut mine Watson consults for even established an on-site napping room.

“But no one is using them,” he said.

“People think they are a good idea but they think they are just not for them – they are there for other people that experience fatigue.

“The reality is that most workers, when interviewed individually, report mostly personal barriers for not reporting fatigue, such as being judged by my peers or ‘feeling like I am letting the team down’.”

Yet the nature of 24-7 operations and night shifts means occasional fatigue is inevitable for many miners.

Watson referenced how Randy Gardner set the world record for staying awake 264 consecutive hours as a 17-year-old Californian high school student in 1964.

While there were no chemical stimulants used Gardner was aided by friends who operated on shifts to keep his mind occupied with games and other activities during the battle to stay awake.

He experienced the gamut of sleep deprivation symptoms, including blurred vision and incoherent speech.

Gardner also hallucinated that he was a famous footballer for the San Diego Chargers.

However, with the help of his friends, Gardner was able to stay awake and break the record.

Watson said the case highlighted the importance of a team environment and positive attitudes to overcoming fatigue issues.

Underground coal mines are already at an advantage in this regard as miners work in tight-knit longwall and development crews.

“They get a real camaraderie about them and I reckon that’s one of the best fatigue management controls you can put in place,” Watson said.

“And assisting and helping each other out is by the far one of the most important strategies.”

From his experience consulting for an open cut mine, Watson said crews that were managing fatigue really well reported their supervisors were very ‘hands-on’.

Watson said the most successful supervisors worked alongside their teams and regularly had fatigue discussions, especially on night shift, and would even take over their tasks occasionally to provide a break.

While underground coal miners might not be able to take off to napping locations on the surface, Watson said generally they had a broader set of tasks, and more stimulating tasks, which help reduce fatigue risks.

“I think that one of the risks, particularly for underground mining, is when there is not much going on and they are sitting around and not stimulating themselves with various tasks,” he said.

Individual factors and preparation also play a big part in an individual’s ability to deal with fatigue.

In studies of long-haul flight pilots tested for 44 consecutive hours in a flight simulator, some pilots operated the simulator at hour 44 just as well at hour one; others’ performances deteriorated significantly.

Sleep deprivation is an obvious contributing factor to fatigue, but is not always the biggest concern.

In one large study, depression, anxiety and stress were found to be the biggest risk factors of excessive daytime sleepiness (a marker of fatigue), followed by overweight/obesity, age and duration of sleep.

Watson said stress was likely to disrupt sleep and distract miners at work.

“If you are too busy thinking about your wife at home because you had a barney with her before you left, you are not really focused on the task.

“You’re not really interested in working hard if you have got a whole bunch of other stuff going on in your life.”

Being overweight represented an imbalance of diet and exercise.

“If you flood a car with fuel, it doesn’t run too well, and the same with us,” Watson said. “If we have too much fuel it contributes to being overweight and we don’t run well either.”

To become more fatigue resistant, Watson advises longwall miners to find opportunities to exercise more regularly, to pack healthy crib bags and to limit alcohol consumption as much as they can.

“I’m a beer-loving dietitian so I am not saying cut it out, but more than two standard drinks a night will affect your sleep quality,” he said.

“A lot of guys say it helps them get to sleep. Yeah it does, but it disrupts your sleep later during the night and you end up waking feeling worse. Not to mention the hangover if you have really indulged.”

Watson said another study had demonstrated that workers who exercised for at least 20 minutes three days a week adapted to shift work better and reported lower levels of fatigue.