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| Miner wearing PDM |
Background
An important potential impact of PRL training research during the next few years will be the development of effective training materials and health communications for coal miners and mine managers on how the personal dust monitor can be used to reduce workers’ exposure to respirable dust. In recent years, coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) has contributed to the deaths of approximately 1,000 people in the United States each year. Federal black lung program payments totaled more than $1.5 billion distributed to nearly 190,000 beneficiaries in 1999.
NIOSH, in collaboration with Rupprecht & Patashnik Co., Inc., of Albany, NY, recently developed a personal dust monitor. This new device represents a major advance in the tools available for assessing coal miners’ exposures to respirable dust levels. Over the next 2 years, NIOSH human factors researchers will collect data to identify how personal dust monitor use affects miners’ exposures to respirable dust. First, researchers will identify several specific examples of how miners use information about the monitors to discover which parts of their jobs and/or which aspects of their work environment may cause them to be overexposed to respirable dust. Second, they will identify the types of changes that miners and mine managers could implement to reduce their exposure. Researchers will develop material for communicating this important information to miners and mine managers. They will also develop training modules to (1) explain the capabilities and use of personal dust monitors to coal miners and (2) explain how to download data, clean the monitor unit, and program it for the next shift of dust sampling to mine health and safety technicians.
Potential Outcome
Once miners know how to use properly the information that a personal dust monitor is capable of providing, they should start adjusting their workplace and work procedures in ways that should reduce their exposure to respirable coal dust. As miners’ exposure to respirable dust is reduced, the incidence of CWP should significantly decline, and miners’ longevity and quality of life should significantly improve. This work will be completed by the end of 2007.