Comparing the Air Quality Inside Enclosed Cabs of Underground Mining Equipment with MERV 16 and HEPA Filters

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cecala, Andrew B. ; Noll J ; Organiscak, John A. ; Zimmer JA
• Description:
  In recent years, significant strides have been made to optimize the design of filtration and pressurization systems used on enclosed cabs of mobile mining equipment to reduce respirable dust and other contaminants and provide the best air quality to the equipment operators. This synergetic effort has involved original equipment manufacturers building mining equipment, manufacturers of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems for mobile equipment, filtration and pressurization system manufacturing companies, as well as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and other government organizations. Considering all the advances made in this area over the last decade, one aspect that NIOSH still needs to assess is the longevity of optimal cab performance with respect to the quality (filtering efficiency) of the filters used in filtration and pressurization systems. In today's culture, most health and safety professionals automatically believe that HEPA quality filters need to be used to provide the greatest level of protection to workers. Researchers at the Office of Mine Safety and Health Research for NIOSH hypothesized that HEPA quality filters may not be optimal for the mining industry and speculated that MERV 16 rated filters would be more appropriate in most cases. In order to test this hypothesis, NIOSH performed a two-year study comparing both HEPA and MERV 16 quality filters on two pieces of underground limestone mining equipment, being a roof-bolter and face drill machine. Testing showed at the 95 pct. confidence level that there was no statistical difference between the two efficiency filters on both pieces of mining equipment. Since the MERV 16 rated filters were less restrictive and provided greater cab pressure, and since they did not have to be replaced as often as the HEPA quality filters, researchers concluded the MERV 16 filters were the optimal choice for both pieces of mining equipment in this case study comparative analysis. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution Environmental Exposure Environmental Monitoring Mining Occupational Health Particulate Matter Safety Vehicle Emissions
• Keywords:
  Air Analysis Air Monitoring Air Quality Air Quality Monitoring Enclosed Cabs Filters Filtration HEPA Filters High-efficiency Particulate Air Filters Mining-industry Mining Equipment Underground-mining

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• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Publisher:
  Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc.
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  Arizona ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Pennsylvania ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PMRD - Pittsburgh Mining Research Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-9
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20048270
• Citation:
  2016 SME Annual Meeting, February 21-24, 2016, Phoenix, Arizona, preprint 16-017. Englewood, CO: Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc., 2016 Feb; :1-9
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  2016 SME Annual Meeting, February 21-24, 2016, Phoenix, Arizona, preprint 16-017
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b06366fb19ec46825df0f631b465058b16d6d1b56bb7cdbcc3556db6ed11853dd40c2e8ccfd848943ec39bff2f7b8758cb66e31608d18d1923b15e48d4e03975
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/228270/cdc_228270_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 869.41 KB ]