Long-Term Evaluation of Cab Particulate Filtration and Pressurization Performance

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cecala, Andrew B. ; Noll, James D. ; Organiscak, John A.
• Description:
  Over the past decade, a substantial effort has been made to improve the air quality inside enclosed cabs of both underground and surface mobile mining equipment to reduce respirable dust exposures by the equipment operators. As part of this effort, the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, (NIOSH) completed a comprehensive laboratory study that determined the significant factors for cab filtration and pressurization systems. From this information, a major underground mining equipment manufacturer designed a filtration and pressurization system that was incorporated into the enclosed cabs of its equipment. A long-term evaluation was performed on the effectiveness of this filtration and pressurization system to improve the air quality in the enclosed cabs of two different pieces of equipment, a face drill and a roof-bolter machine, at an underground limestone mine. This long-term evaluation demonstrated a significant reduction in dust levels between outside-to-inside cab respirable dust concentrations. During this evaluation, a modification to remove one of the filters on the roof-bolter machine simplified the design without sacrificing the system's efficiency. Tests using particle count instruments performed during nonproduction time periods on both pieces of equipment indicated protection factors greater than 100 when comparing respirable-sized dust particles inside the enclosed cab relative to outside. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Movements Air Pollution Air Pollution, Indoor Air Pressure Dust Filtration Laboratories Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Mining Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Particulate Matter Safety Silicon Dioxide

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• Keywords:
  Air-flow Air-pressure Air-quality Air-quality-control Author Keywords: Dust Control Dust-control Dust-control-equipment Dust-exposure Employee-exposure Equipment-design Equipment-operators Health And Safety Laboratory-testing Machine-operation Machine-operators Mine-workers Miners Mining-equipment Mining-industry Particle-counters Pressure-testing Respirable-dust Silica Underground-mining

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• Series:
  Mining Publications
• ISBN:
  9780873352710
• ISSN:
  1075-8623
• Publisher:
  Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc.
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; 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
• Volume:
  332
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20041904
• Citation:
  Trans Soc Min Metall Explor TP-11-047, 2013 Jan; 332:521-531
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Transactions of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:190ff01c0a2707eaebe230f4ed6d25a600267322d94d6e29cb4013b58479e9d012df713c826e4ff0572e5cd3bc1f228841cf03536d4d9e64af9bc454c9762f08
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/227489/cdc_227489_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.02 MB ]