Published: October 4, 2018 |

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Mining companies can reduce employees’ exposure to respirable silica using new federal air sampling software being released Oct. 2.

Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health say the new Field Analysis of Silica Tool, or FAST, will let mine operators know within hours if workers are being exposed to unsafe levels of silica, which is present in inhaled coal dust.

Over time, that knowledge could reduce exposure to silica, a cause of pneumoconiosis or black lung disease.

More miners are developing black lung disease. Ten percent of coal miners working for 25 years or more, and one-fifth of those in central Appalachia, have an early form of black lung disease known as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis. Some of that is due to silica exposure, federal researchers have found.

The new silica tools will also aid health researchers studying the disease uptick, Robert Cohen, professor of medicine and director of occupational lung disease at the University of Illinois, Chicago, told Bloomberg Environment.

“I think this has huge potential,” Cohen said.

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Under current test methods, mine operators must send samples to private laboratories and wait to receive results. Workers may have already been exposed to unsafe levels of silica for several weeks before anyone finds out.

The new tool works differently.

Mines can use it to collect dust samples on cassettes, which are analyzed by an instrument operated on-site, with results available within a few minutes. The NIOSH-developed software stores raw data in a database that can be accessed by multiple users and devices, sorting the results to identify hazards.

“For those operators that are proactive, this is a great tool that they can use,” R.J. Matetic, the director of NIOSH’s Pittsburgh Mining Research Division, told Bloomberg Environment.

The technology will not only protect workers, but save companies money, Matetic and other NIOSH scientists say.

The equipment needed to analyze the dust samples costs as much as $15,000, but companies will come out ahead after about 200 samples by eliminating fees paid to private laboratories.

Peabody Energy, Arch Coal, Consol Energy, and Contura Energy didn’t immediately respond to Bloomberg Environment’s requests for comment. A spokesman for Murray Energy Corp. and a spokeswoman for the National Mining Association in Washington, D.C. declined to comment.

Source: BNA.com

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