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| Bag cleaning unit installed in plant |
Background
Workers performing a vast array of different job functions at mineral processing operations are often overexposed to silica and other respirable dusts. Health and safety specialists and engineers are constantly looking for new engineering control techniques to lower respirable dust exposures for workers at these facilities. NIOSH and the Industrial Minerals Association-North America (IMA-NA) recently formed a dust control task group in an effort to improve dust control at processing operations. This task group is mainly composed of health and safety specialists from a number of mineral processing corporations, as well as members from IMA-NA and NIOSH. The initial goal of this dust control task group is to pursue the development of a dust control handbook for mineral processing plants that would provide information on proven and effective control technology to lower workers’ respirable dust exposures at mineral processing plants. This handbook is to be fashioned after the ACGIH’s Industrial Ventilation Manual: A Manual of Recommended Practices. Chapters within the handbook will be written to address the different dust exposure topics of concern and provide engineering control techniques to lower workers’ exposures to respirable dust. It is anticipated that much of the information for this handbook will come from the current NIOSH mineral processing dust control handbook. However, new information will be added. This handbook also will address a wider array of workers with a significant emphasis on maintenance workers, who are often overlooked with respect to dust exposure, but who are often highly exposed.
Potential Outcome
Once completed, this handbook will be an extremely valuable resource to the industry by providing information on proven and effective dust control technology to lower workers’ respirable dust exposures throughout the minerals processing industry. It is anticipated that this joint effort will start in 2006 and continue through 2008, with the handbook coming out in 2009.