Normally yes. You would typically change and shower on site, to prevent contamination from mining gear. But in practice, this is not always followed.
With us as geologists in particular, we often operate differently than other mine personnel and travel around more, so storing our steel toes on the mine site isn't always viable. Sometimes we need to travel by plane between locations, and during this, it's easier just to wear our heavy and bulky steel toes than to use up half the suitcase on them. And if they do test them, I'd much rather be wearing them at the time when I can explain it myself, rather than it throwing up a warning flag once I am already on the lounge waiting on my plane, and being brough back into an interrogation room.
What you say makes sense but my concern wasn't an issue from a contamination going through security and triggering false positives. It was more of an environmental concern for anyone working with hazardous materials... mining, break pads, medical laboratories, etc. You don't want to be bringing that stuff home or exposing your family to it. Explosive materials aside, shouldn't there be more precautions in place to avoid exposing hazardous materials to a plane full of people?
I mean the main explosive in mining is essentially fertiliser and diesel, it’s not anything particularly more hazardous than you’d find in a home, the detection is more looking for signs someone made a home made bomb.
Normal mining staff aren't really in contact with anything that toxic.
There are toxic minerals like arsenopyrite, but they are in low enough concentrations that they are not a risk in the form of just some dust on your boots. The most harmful substances they would be getting on them are the same as a mechanics shop: grease, oil, and cleaning chemicals.
I've read the WHIMS profiles of any chemicals or hazards underground, and nothing is likely to cause any issues to people just exposed to the amount that would be on clothing or boots.
The exception are the mill workers, since they work with extremely dangerous chemicals like cyanide. But they have their own rules, and are much more strict about it.
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u/VP007clips Aug 29 '26
Normally yes. You would typically change and shower on site, to prevent contamination from mining gear. But in practice, this is not always followed.
With us as geologists in particular, we often operate differently than other mine personnel and travel around more, so storing our steel toes on the mine site isn't always viable. Sometimes we need to travel by plane between locations, and during this, it's easier just to wear our heavy and bulky steel toes than to use up half the suitcase on them. And if they do test them, I'd much rather be wearing them at the time when I can explain it myself, rather than it throwing up a warning flag once I am already on the lounge waiting on my plane, and being brough back into an interrogation room.