Insertion Loss of Noise Barriers on an Aboveground, Full-Scale Model Longwall Coal Mining Shearer

Details

• Personal Author:
  Slagley JM ; Smith DA ; Sweeney DD
• Description:
  The U.S. mining industry struggles with hazardous noise and dust exposures in underground mining. Specifically, longwall coal mine shearer operators are routinely exposed to noise levels at 151% of the allowable daily dose, and approximately 20% exceed regulatory dust levels. In the current study, a partial barrier was mounted on the full-scale mock shearer at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Pittsburgh Research Laboratory. A simulated, full-scale, coal mine longwall shearer operation was employed to test the feasibility of utilizing a barrier to separate the shearer operator from the direct path of the noise and dust source during mining operations. In this model, noise levels at the operators' positions were reduced by 2.6 to 8.2 A-weighted decibels (dBA) from the application of the test barriers. Estimated insertion loss underground was 1.7 to 7.3 dBA. The barrier should be tested in an underground mining operation to determine if it can reduce shearer operators' noise exposure to below regulatory limits. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Dust Environmental Monitoring Minerals Mining Noise Occupational Health Particulate Matter Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Longwall Mining Coal-mining Coal-processing Dust-exposure Dust-particles Exposure-assessment Exposure-limits Longwall-mining Mine-workers Mineral-processing Mining-industry Noise Noise-analysis Noise-exposure Noise-levels Particulate-dust Respirable-dust Sound Barrier

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• ISSN:
  1545-9624
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  272-279
• Volume:
  7
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20037006
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Hyg 2010 May; 7(5):272-279
• Contact Point Address:
  Jeremy M. Slagley, AFIT/ENV BLDG 640, 2950 Hobson Way, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7765
• Email:
  jeremy.slagley@afit.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• Performing Organization:
  University of Cincinnati
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:98055436e7873ff751fd5aefbf9c3836f7aa000cd8e7d47232d63f150090e22e9be016914b278e48dfe275e5a997a51caddfda217f1856ff801199adf3b18aa1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/188185/cdc_188185_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 676.73 KB ]