Coal roadway driving is an important part of the underground mining system, and very common in Chinese coal mines. However, the high concentration of respirable dust produced in the blasting operation poses a great hazard to miners’ health as well as the underground environment. In this paper, based on the direct simulation Monte Carlo method, the gas–solid two-phase flow model of particle move...

Coal miners have been shown to be at increased risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases including emphysema. The objective of this study was to determine whether lifetime cumulative exposure to respirable coal mine dust is a significant predictor of developing emphysema at a clinically-relevant level of severity by the end of life, after controlling for cigarette smoking and ot...

OBJECTIVES To understand the variations of selenium (Se) concentration relative to changes in occupational exposure to coal dust, taking into account age and changes in smoking habits in miners surveyed twice, in 1990 and 1994. To better understand the relation of Se concentration with glutathione peroxidase activities (GSH-Px) in these miners. METHODS In 1994, blood samples were obtained fro...

Underground U.S. coal miners were studied cross-sectionally for the association of respirable coal mine dust exposure with pulmonary function and symptoms of airways obstruction. The study group included 1,185 miners participating in Round 4 of the National Study of Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis who had started mining in or after 1970 when comprehensive exposure regulations first came into effec...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the component of coal responsible for coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP). METHODS A literature search of PubMED was conducted to address studies that have evaluated the risk of CWP based on the components of coal. RESULTS The risk of CWP (CWP) depends on the concentration and duration of exposure to coal dust. Epidemiology studies have shown inverse links between CWP a...

This study examined the potential for coal mine roof bolter dust to be a source of a worker’s exposure to respirable quartz. For the models of roof bolter studied, the dust from bolt hole drilling is collected by a dry vacuum exhaust system. The collected dust-laden air passes through a cyclone size-separator (pre-cleaner) and into a collector box containing two additional cyclones and a filter...

We aimed to estimate the economic losses currently caused by coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) and, on the basis of these measurements, confirm the economic benefit of preventive measures. Our cohort study included 1,847 patients with CWP and 43,742 coal workers without CWP who were registered in the employment records of the Datong Coal Mine Group. We calculated the cumulative incidence rate ...

Silicosis, a debilitating and potentially deadly lung disease, develops through inhalation of excessive concentrations of respirable crystalline silica dust. In underground coal mines, continuous miner operators have a high risk of overexposure to silica, with approximately 25% of compliance dust samples exceeding the permissible exposure limit. Continuous miners often extract high-silica-conte...

Identification and quantification of 16 priority Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) collected from 4 atmosphere particulate samples in December 2008 to January 2009 were determined by gas chromatography (GC). The source of the PAHs in atmosphere particulate was estimated by chemical mass balance model and improved source apportionment technique. Dust was the major PAHs source in Qingdao, a...

Projects focusing on spatio-temporal modelling of the living environment need to manage a wide range of terrain measurements, existing spatial data, time series, results of spatial analysis and inputs/outputs from numerical simulations. Thus, GISs are often used to manage data from remote sensors, to provide advanced spatial analysis and to integrate numerical models. In order to demonstrate th...