Less Sound Underground: Reducing Roof Bolting Machine Drilling Noise

Details

• Personal Author:
  Alcorn LA ; Lowe, Melissa J. ; Michael R ; Peterson, Jeffrey S. ; Yantek, David S.
• Description:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) researchers strive to reduce noise-induced hearing loss for coal miners. The highest occurrence of hazardous noise exposure in the United States is within the mining industry, where 24% of miners have a reported hearing loss as a result. To find out the causes, NIOSH reviewed surveillance data from the Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) on noise exposure in the mining industry. This study revealed which machine operators exceed 100% noise dose per the MSHA Permissible Exposure Level (PEL) - the noise limit a mine worker can be exposed to for their shift. To reduce noise overexposure for miners, researchers have developed noise controls that reduce the sound at the operator's position. For one machine in particular, a roof bolting machine (RBM), NIOSH partnered with Corry Rubber Corporation and Kennametal, Inc. to develop a suite of noise controls. This article presents the most significant findings from that research. A detailed report on the noise control suite is listed in the reference section. The control suite reduces sound levels at the operator's ear by over 77%. This is significant because an RBM operator is the second-most likely of all underground coal mining equipment operators to be overexposed to noise. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Engineering Hearing Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Mining Noise Noise, Occupational Occupational Health Safety

  More +
• Keywords:
  Coal-miners Coal-mining Engineering-controls Equipment-operators Exposure-limits Hearing-conservation Machine-operators Machine-tools Miners Mining-industry Noise-control Noise-exposure Noise-induced-hearing-loss Noise-protection Noise-sources Surveillance-programs Underground-miners Underground-mining

  More +
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Publisher:
  Institute of Noise Control Engineering of the USA
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings ; Lay Publication
• Place as Subject:
  Indiana ; Maryland ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OMSHR - Office of Mine Safety and Health Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20037503
• Citation:
  NOISE-CON 2010: Proceedings of the 2010 National Conference on Noise Control Engineering and 159th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Baltimore, Maryland, April 19-21, 2010. Burroughs CB; Maling G; eds., Indianapolis, IN: Institute of Noise Control Engineering of the USA, 2010 Apr; :1-6
• Contact Point Address:
  M. Jenae Lowe, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Office of Mine Safety and Health Research, PO Box 18070, 626 Cochrans Mill Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15236
• Email:
  MLowe@cdc.gov
• Editor(s):
  Burroughs CB; Maling G
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  NOISE-CON 2010: Proceedings of the 2010 National Conference on Noise Control Engineering and 159th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Baltimore, Maryland, April 19-21, 2010
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:154d8d7395f374d8b493d2f7be68aab322ecc74c8247ea5e8fe1d812e3ccbf43132c1473677395afd3819cc4f2a426d850e20ca148acf8dbbcaf67670b528e40
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/227238/cdc_227238_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 173.55 KB ]