Reducing Dust and Respirable Crystalline Silica Near Conveyors Using a Hybrid Dust Control System

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Min Metall Explor
• Personal Author:
  Parks, David A. ; King, Grant W. ; Koski, B. David ; Bierie, Greg S. ; Sunderman, Carl B. ; Wilson, Samantha E. ; Miller, Arthur L.
• Description:
  Occupational exposures to respirable dusts and respirable crystalline silica (RCS) is well established as a health hazard in many industries including mining, construction, and oil and gas extraction. The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is researching methods of controlling fugitive dust emissions at outdoor mining operations. In this study, a prototype engineering control system to control fugitive dust emissions was developed combining passive subsystems for dust settling with active dust filtration and spray-surfactant dust suppression comprising a hybrid system. The hybrid system was installed at an aggregate production facility to evaluate the effectiveness of controlling fugitive dust emissions generated from two cone crushers and belt conveyors that transport crushed materials. To evaluate effectiveness of the system, area air measurements (| = 14 on each day for a total of 42 samples) for respirable dust were collected by NIOSH before, during, and after the installation of the dust control system in the immediate vicinity of the crushers and the nearby conveyor transfer point. Compared to pre-intervention samples, over short periods of time, geometric mean concentrations of airborne respirable dust were reduced by 37% using passive controls (| = 0.34) but significantly reduced by 93% (| < 0.0001) when the full hybrid system was installed. This proof-of-concept project demonstrated that the combined use of active and passive dust controls along with a spray surfactant can be highly effective in controlling fugitive dust emissions even with minimal use of water, which is desirable for many remote mining applications.
• Keywords:
  Dust Control Respirable Crystalline Silica Respirable Dust
• Source:
  Min Metall Explor. 41:2891-2899
• Pubmed ID:
  39781367
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11708428
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  41
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bcebc955e75a4a9b54c434d39d682412bb3c21a9a37fd645e607f34c7acc0874c4bcffc456b5f174f610083dde332cf0471245e6bc15b9fe157a7b4c89e4f5ea
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/175578/cdc_175578_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.93 MB ]