Causal Analysis of Safety Risk Perception of Iranian Coal Mining Workers Using Fuzzy Delphi and DEMATEL

Mitra Hannani, Marc Bascompta, Mojtaba Gerami Sabzevar, Hesam Dehghani and Ali Asghar Khajevandi ()
Additional contact information
Mitra Hannani: Occupational Health and Safety Department, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan 73441, Iran
Marc Bascompta: Department of Mining, Industrial and ICT Engineering, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
Mojtaba Gerami Sabzevar: Occupational Health and Safety Department, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan 73441, Iran
Hesam Dehghani: Department of Mine Engineering, Hamedan University of Technology, Hamedan 65155, Iran
Ali Asghar Khajevandi: Occupational Health and Safety Department, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan 73441, Iran

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 19, 1-19

Abstract: Underground coal mines, one of the most dangerous work environments, have experienced accidents and disasters. One of the main reasons for those unsafe events is the workers’ poor understanding of the hazards and risks of working in this work environment. Therefore, the present study aims to identify factors affecting the safety risk perception of underground coal mine workers in Iran and investigate their cause-and-effect relationships. By reviewing the literature, 40 variables were identified in five categories: individual, organizational, environmental, task, and external factors. The identified variables were ranked according to the expert group’s opinion in the form of a fuzzy Delphi study regarding their effects on risk perception. In the next step, 23 variables were selected to investigate the cause-and-effect relationships using the DEMATEL method. The study’s findings showed that organizational factors and some individual factors play a fundamental role in workers’ risk perception. The variables of safety culture, safety management style, and safety attitude had the most significant impact, and the variables of personal protective equipment and risk aversion had the smallest impact on workers’ risk perception. The present study’s findings can be used as a guideline to provide effective solutions for managers and workers in improving safety risk perception, subsequently reducing unsafe behaviors and increasing the safety status of underground coal mines.

Keywords: underground coal mines; coal mines safety risk perception; fuzzy Delphi and DEMATEL (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/19/14277/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/19/14277/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:19:p:14277-:d:1248815

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().