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Human Factors Research Group
Definition of human factors
‘Human factors’ refer to environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics, which influence behaviour at work in a way which can affect health and safety, or result in accidents, injuries and ill-health.
Focus and potential impact
The mission of the Centre for Mining Innovation at the CSIR is “to expand the South African mineral reserve by converting the current mineral resources into accessible reserves using novel technologies, whilst extracting without harm through applied research”.
To facilitate ‘extracting without harm’, research in the Human Factors area will be aimed at assessing potential health and safety risks stemming from:
- Psychosocial and physical characteristics of the workplace environment,
- The physical, cognitive and emotional demands of work performance,
- Respiratory hazards in the workplace environment, and
- The current culture of health and safety at mines.
Current and future research will be structured in such a way to positively impact on the mining sector’s roadmap to ‘Zero Harm’, especially in the areas of ‘strengthening a culture of health and safety’ and ‘making working places safer and healthier’. In addition, research will also be directed to the development of safety and health management tools, based on physiological parameters, which could ultimately be linked to the real-time risk assessment research programme of the centre.
Outline of projects
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