NIOSH/Industry Collaborative Efforts Show Improved Mining Equipment Cab Dust Protection

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ahrenholtz E ; Cecala, Andrew B. ; Heitbrink, William A. ; Organiscak, John A. ; Schmitz, Michael ; Thimons, Edward D.
• Description:
  Mobile excavation equipment operators at surface mines generally have the highest exposure to airborne respirable silica dust. Operator cabs on newer equipment are usually enclosed and equipped with heating and air conditioning systems. Many newer cabs are also equipped with air filtration systems. However, some newer cabs and many older cabs have either inefficient or no air filtration systems. The U.S. surface mining industry is still populated with older equipment, and many of these have cabs that provide little or no respirable silica dust protection. Collaborative field studies were conducted as part of a partnership involving NIOSH, Clean Air Filter, Red Dot Corp., the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and several mine operators to demonstrate that effective dust protection can be provided by these cabs at a nominal cost to mine operators. This effort encompassed adding an external make-up air fan and filter system to a retrofitted roof-mounted heating and air conditioning system in three older equipment cabs and attempting to seal the cab enclosures to achieve interior cab pressurization. A better than 90% dust reduction was measured inside two of the three enclosed equipment cabs. It was possible to achieve positive cab pressurization inside these two cabs. A less significant dust reduction was measured inside the third cab, where positive pressurization was not achieved. These field studies demonstrate the key elements needed to improve enclosed cab dust protection in a cost-effective manner. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Construction Industry Dust Filtration Mining Occupational Health Safety Silicon Dioxide
• Keywords:
  Dust-particles Enclosed-cabs Excavation-equipment Mining-equipment Occupational-health Respirable-dust Silica-dusts Surface-mining
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• ISSN:
  1075-8623
• Publisher:
  Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc.
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Iowa ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 7 ; Pennsylvania ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PRL - Pittsburgh Research Laboratory
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  145-152
• Volume:
  314
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026001
• Citation:
  Trans Soc Min Metall Explor 2003 Dec; 314:145-152
• Contact Point Address:
  NIOSH Pittsburgh Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 18070, Pittsburgh, PA 15236
• Editor(s):
  Yernberg WR
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2004
• Performing Organization:
  University of Iowa
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Transactions of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration
• End Date:
  20290630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:72544a71cfb309d5e82c2541bcfc7b76d7e792ced294ed230550f81c324149fa1e59862a7a90c48a06e0509d0c83cba383a671b67fc818c9a58f06551279a4ee
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/220963/cdc_220963_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.40 MB ]