Beyond Assessment: Helmet-CAM Technology Influencing Dust Exposure Awareness and Response

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cecala, Andrew B. ; Haas, Emily J. ; Cecala, Andrew B. ; Haas, Emily J.
• Description:
  Exposure to respirable dust, and especially dust containing crystalline silica, continues to be a serious health concern for our nation's miners. Despite constant advances to lower respirable dust exposures, miners still experience periods of elevated exposure while performing their jobs. A joint venture several years ago by Unimin Corp. and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NlOSH) developed an assessment technology now known as "Helmet-CAM" (see Cecala & O'Brien, 2014; Cecala et al., 2013). This technology is making great strides to help identify how, when and where miners are being exposed to respirable silica dust, allowing for a finely tunable focus on the subtleties of tasks and activities that can significantly increase exposures. As NIOSH research continues to educate and broaden the use of the Helmet-CAM exposure assessment technology for the mining industry, industrial minerals mining companies are increasingly using the technology not only to efficiently detect work areas and practices that contribute to respirable dust exposures, but also to investigate the effectiveness of various engineering control technologies and interventions to lower miners' respirable dust exposures. Building on this trending practice, NIOSH recently began the integration of a behavioral component via collaborative efforts with cooperating mining partners in which the Helmet-CAM also is being applied as a risk communication tool in a series of interventions. The initial study, performed with Badger Mining Corp., has been overwhelmingly positive in many aspects. This article highlights this preliminary behavioral/engineering cooperative study in an effort to encourage the use of Helmet-CAM technology as a risk management tool to improve site-wide awareness and communication between workers and management. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aerosols Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Automation Dust Environmental Monitoring Hazardous Substances Mining Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Protective Clothing Risk Assessment Safety Silicon Dioxide Software Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Aerosol-particles Air-contamination Air-monitoring Air-quality-monitoring Computer-software Dust-analysis Dust-exposure Dust-measurement Employee-exposure Equipment-design Exposure-assessment Hazard Communication Hazard Identification Headgear Intervention Intervention Effectiveness Miners Mining-industry Monitoring-systems Monitors Photographic-equipment Recording-systems Respirable-dust Risk Management Safety Helmets Silica-dusts Visual-images Work-environment

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• Series:
  Mining Publications   ; Mining Publications  
• ISSN:
  0747-3605
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article ; Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PMRD - Pittsburgh Mining Research Division ; PMRD - Pittsburgh Mining Research Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health ; Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America ; North America
• Volume:
  118
• Issue:
  11
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20048286
• Citation:
  Rock Prod 2015 Nov; 118(11):28-30,32-33
• CAS Registry Number:
  Quartz (SiO2) (CAS RN 14808-60-7) ; Quartz (SiO2) (CAS RN 14808-60-7)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining ; Mining
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Rock Products
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9dfe54e58bd85fcfc9234d06d0cfa99eda480596a29e20012f474a789175576692f22ab31d271bbe4cb8e8976c26759175393c218c06e2eb254b62f5f1dc3972
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/228282/cdc_228282_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.83 MB ]