Characterizing respirable dust generated from cutting potash in laboratory full scale cutting tests with radial picks at different stages of wear.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Brune, Jürgen F. ; Ishaq M ; Rosami J ; Sidrow E ; Slouka S ; Tsai C
• Description:
  Respirable rock dust poses serious long-term health effects to workers in mining and tunneling underground hard rock environments. When inhaled, respirable silica particles commonly found in quartz and other minerals will scar sensitive lung tissue and cause irreversible lung diseases. Characteristics such as concentration, type of mineral, particle size, and particle shape inhaled can harm workers to various extents. Therefore, this study characterizes rock dust particles less than 100?m in aerodynamic diameter that are released from cutting hard rock in the underground mining environment. In this study, laboratory full scale cutting tests on samples of potash rock were performed with radial picks to generate dust. Three stages of pick wear were tested: new, moderately worn, and severely worn. Comparisons between different stages of pick wear to dust concentration, size distribution, and particle shape characteristics are drawn from this study to start determining the scenarios when the released airborne dusts become potentially most hazardous for workers. Although further testing needs to be conducted to make viable conclusions, the moderately worn pick, or the pick with the most blunt tip, in these experiments are potentially the most dangerous. The blunt pick tip released the highest concentration of dust and generated particle shapes with the highest aspect ratio compared to the other two picks. The preliminary results of this study allow for the further development of optimum bit management and maintenance systems to control the exposure of respirable dust to mine workers. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Dust Laboratories Lung Lung Diseases Mining Occupational Health Quartz Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Silicon Dioxide

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• Keywords:
  Mining industry; Respirable dust; Quartz dust; Silica dusts; Lung disorders; Mine workers; Mining equipment; Stone processing; Equipment testing; Laboratory testing
• ISBN:
  9781713845089
• Publisher:
  Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Contract
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Colorado ; OSHA Region 8 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Utah
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  65-72
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20065320
• Citation:
  MineXchange: 2022 SME Annual Conference and Expo, February 27-March 2, 2022, Salt Lake City, Utah, preprint 22-015. Englewood, CO: Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, 2022 Feb; :65-72
• CAS Registry Number:
  Quartz (SiO2) (CAS RN 14808-60-7)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2022
• Performing Organization:
  Colorado School of Mines
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20190913
• Source Full Name:
  MineXchange: 2022 SME Annual Conference and Expo, February 27-March 2, 2022, Salt Lake City, Utah, preprint 22-015
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6bdb2f884ed7e436a4e3289631a10763f4a6d2c38314074c443b3e5271edab0502158089d0bf0847dbc13c58510a6d619e595ac59d010d493d35ef6db9977757
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/248777/cdc_248777_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 549.66 KB ]