Assessment of the cause and mode of death of victims of a mass industrial accident in the Halemba coal mine

Radiological findings in an ancient Iranian salt mummy (Chehrābād ca. 410-350 BC)

“…These alterations suggest a severe blunt-force trauma causing high-energy fractures, which is most likely caused by a collapse of the ancient salt mine. Similar traumatic causes of death with severe mechanical injuries are described in case reports from mining victims, e.g., coal miners from Poland [25]. Traumatic injury patterns including multiple fractured skeletons are also described in skeletal remains of a 19th century landslide victims [26].…”

Thermal performance analysis of an underground closed chamber with human body heat sources under natural convection

“…The computational grids are generated by software ANSYS ICEM 18.0. Six grids (with a number of grids as 10.2×10 5 , 13.8×10 5 , 17.6×10 5 , 27.5×10 5 , 35.0×10 5 , 41.4×10 5 , respectively) are tested to ensure that the solver and numerical schemes implementation yield results are independent from the grid, as shown in Fig. 5.…”

“…The airflow velocity near the walls in the MRC induced by buoyancy is estimated as 0.02 ~ 0.3 m/s, the Reynolds number (Re) is calculated as 0.22×10 5 ~ 1.08×10 5 . Therefore, the air flow in the MRC is considered to be turbulent.…”

“…With the rapid development and application of underground energy and space, the safety of underground space is becoming an important issue [1]. According to statistics of underground fire and explosion accidents, only a few people among the deaths died directly from the fire and blast wave, and up to 80% of the people indirectly died from carbon monoxide and suffocation [2][3][4][5]. The application of underground emergency refuge system, such as the tunnel rescue station in subway, mine refuge chamber (MRC) and movable shelter in mine, plays an important role in reducing deaths for underground accidents [6][7][8].…”

Confirmation of natural gas explosion from methane quantification by headspace gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS-GC-MS) in postmortem samples: a case report

“…Secondly, methane is extremely flammable and may form explosive mixtures with air at concentrations between 5 and 15 % by volume [8]. Therefore, methane combustion in mines [9,10], during tunnel urban works [11] or domestic incidents [12], can lead to lethal explosions through the conversion of methane chemical energy into mechanical and thermal energy [13][14][15]. Conversely, only one suicide case has been reported that involved methane explosivity as a deliberate lethal agent [16].…”