For many people the mining industry conjures less than healthy images of hefty truck drivers sinking tinnies at the wet mess after a hard yakka shift in the pit.

While there may be some truth to the stereotype, many of today’s mines have gone beyond the traditional realms of occupational safety, employing outside health service companies to run a wide range of onsite health promotion and injury prevention programs.

Corporate health groups say the presence of onsite health outfits are part of an overall shift on minesites toward improved employee health and fitness, as mine management see the upside of having a healthy workforce.

On the east coast of Australia one company helping coal miners become healthier is Corporate Bodies International.

Earlier this year the workplace health provider told ILN it had been running its Working Bodies program at the Metropolitan Colliery, addressing key factors which affect shift and blue-collar workers.

Corporate Bodies dietician Shivaun Conn who oversaw the program at the colliery and said she was proud of the site.

“I think everyone made a change,” Conn told International Longwall News.

“We had some guys who really turned their life around and then we had some guys who did not have a lot to change.

“We lost about 70 kilograms and 129.5 centimetres around the waist by the final participant so it was a good, hard measurement to achieve.”

The working bodies program was designed to encourage participants to adopt better lifestyle patterns including healthier dietary habits, increasing exercise and also having a look at sleep and minimising fatigue.

On the other side of the country mines are proving just as health conscious.

Western Australian health service provider Onsite Health Solutions showcased its expertise to Australian miners at the Goldfields Mining Expo (GME) in Kalgoorlie last month.

Kate Harvey, a trained exercise physiologist and the company’s Goldfields regional manager, said there were cost and operational benefits to investing in occupational health programs.

Such programs, she said, had the capacity to deliver increased employee productivity and boost team moral, while at the same time reducing sick days and staff turnover.

Harvey gave an example of a mining company study that identified a more than 60% reduction in onsite back injuries after implementing a back care and manual handling program.

Onsite Health Solutions has also achieved good results with its 12-week Biggest Winner health challenge, a fitness program inspired by the Biggest Loser television series.

As well as running fitness sessions, injury prevention programs, ergonomic assessments and pre-employment medicals the minesite health professionals play a key role in the promotion of a healthy lifestyle – but this is not the only benefit according to health service groups.

Health promotion and wellness coordinator with fellow GME exhibitor Health Services Australia, Joel Canning said mine management was increasingly aware of the role minesite health and fitness can play in staff attraction and retention.

“They’re really quite open to it right now,” Canning told MiningNewsPremium.net. “And it’s not just looking at it from a keeping injuries down point of view, but also it’s a bit of a retention strategy by offering things like gyms and all these after hours stuff.”

With high competition for skilled staff, he said, mining companies were looking at what they could offer onsite workers, such as sporting facilities and fitness classes.

As for the miners themselves, Canning said staff were showing a keener interest in health matters, with numbers for HSA’s health and wellness sessions up over the last 12 months.

Special events such as a recent “minesite city to surf” challenge (based on similar capital city events) had proved particularly popular with mine staff, he added.

With the greater focus on health part of an overall change in mining attitudes, Canning points to developments in the kitchen.

“They’re offering vegetarian and low fat choices, and that’s something I doubt you would’ve seen 10 years ago,” he said.

Canning also notes changes at the bar, with some mines putting restrictions on alcohol purchases to discourage overconsumption and absenteeism.

“At one of the mines we work at you’re only allowed four cans of mid-strength a night,” he said.

Also presenting at GME, Melbourne-based Health by Design (HBD) said onsite health professionals had an valuable role to play in impacting people’s health perceptions and behaviours.

Despite the traditional resistance of blue collar workers to radical change, HBD’s national sales manager Travis Ruyg told MNP the company recognised the importance of making small health changes such as eating breakfast and drinking water regularly.

“We really target smaller changes, understanding that small changes – for this particular industry – are quite an achievement for these individuals. But also, these small changes add up over a period of time.”