Continuous Personal Dust Monitor

A continuous individual particulate show astatine usage successful a mine.

Until recently, underground ember miners and excavation operators had small measurement of knowing—in existent time—if miners were being exposed to hazardous levels of respirable ember particulate during their shifts. NIOSH collaborated pinch an instrumentality manufacturer, authorities partners, labour representatives, and coal industry leaders to create nan continuous individual particulate show (CPDM), a exertion that offers miners, information personnel, and operators real-time vulnerability accusation to thief protect miners’ health.

Throughout their shifts, miners tin publication nan integer surface connected nan CPDM to spot their particulate vulnerability levels for nan erstwhile 30 minutes, arsenic good arsenic their cumulative shift-long average. Workers and guidance tin usage this accusation to set particulate controls aliases find corrective actions—such arsenic improved ventilation aliases repositioning miners to locations pinch little dust. The information recorded by nan CPDM tin besides beryllium uploaded to nan Mine Safety and Health Administration sample postulation database for determining compliance pinch allowable respirable particulate limits.

Before nan CPDM, mines had to cod samples connected a select and nonstop them to a lab, wherever nan samples were analyzed for hazardous dust. Shipping and laboratory clip often took weeks—potentially leaving miners moving successful a vulnerable situation. The CPDM reduces nan reporting clip to minutes.

Dust sampling successful operating ember mines has been federally mandated since 1969 and is simply a captious portion of checking whether nan aerial that miners respire underground is astatine aliases beneath allowable particulate limits. MSHA mandated CPDM usage for particulate sampling successful February 2016, and nan manufacture is seeing nan benefits of having this benignant of accusation astatine workers’ fingertips. Early information reported to MSHA from users of this wearable instrumentality show miners are utilizing nan accusation nan CPDM provides to move themselves to areas wherever particulate levels are wrong safe limits and make ventilation adjustments to their workspaces to support nan particulate moving distant from them.

This improvement is critical, arsenic breathing hazardous particulate concentrations tin origin ember workers’ pneumoconiosis, commonly known arsenic achromatic lung disease. Miners who suffer from achromatic lung acquisition lifelong and irreversible breathing problems, often starring to premature death. An particularly terrible shape of nan disease, progressive monolithic fibrosis (PMF), is resurfacing, arsenic was precocious documented successful nan December 16, 2016, rumor of CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

In summation to nan aesculapian and affectional load that nan illness places connected workers and their families, location is besides tremendous financial cost. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Black Lung Program has paid much than $46 cardinal successful compensation to achromatic lung sufferers since 1970, and much than $275 cardinal successful 2016 alone.

Black lung prevention and eradication is simply a privilege for NIOSH. Decades of investigation person produced galore effective particulate power technologies for mines, including h2o sprays, protective aerial curtains, and aerial scrubbers. These solutions are elaborate successful nan NIOSH publication, Best Practices for Dust Control successful Coal Mining, and successful galore different resources disposable from nan NIOSH Mining website.

The CPDM stands to beryllium a powerful instrumentality to forestall hazardous particulate exposures, and hopefully support early cases of achromatic lung from developing, peculiarly for workers successful positions prone to experiencing precocious particulate levels.

The PDM3700, a certified and commercially disposable CPDM, is based connected a proprietary exertion known arsenic nan tapered constituent oscillating microbalance (TEOM) primitively developed arsenic a fixed-site biology particulate wide show by Rupprecht and Patashnick Co., Inc., Albany, NY. NIOSH worked pinch R&P and its successor company, Thermo Fisher Scientific, arsenic good arsenic pinch labour unions, employers, and authorities partners to accommodate that existing, larger exertion into a smaller sampling instrumentality that could beryllium safely worn underground.

 If you person utilized nan CPDM we would emotion to perceive from you successful nan remark conception below.

Steven Mischler, PhD, is simply a elder investigation intelligence successful nan Dust, Ventilation and Toxic Substances Branch of  nan NIOSH Office of Mine Safety and Health Research.

Valerie Coughanour, MA, MFA, is simply a wellness connection master successful nan Health Communications, Surveillance, and Research Support Branch of nan NIOSH Pittsburgh Mining Research Division.