Abstract
A recent resurgence in coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (or “black lung”) and concerns over other related respiratory illnesses have highlighted the need to elucidate characteristics of airborne particulates in occupational environments. A better understanding of particle size, aspect ratio, or chemical composition may offer new insights regarding causal factors of such illnesses. Scanning electron microscopy analysis using energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) can be used to estimate these particle characteristics. If conducted manually, such work can be very time intensive, limiting the number of particles that can be analyzed. Moreover, potential exists for user bias in interpretation of EDX spectra. A computer-controlled (CC) routine, on the other hand, can allow similar analysis at a much faster rate, increasing total particle counts and reproducibility of results. This paper describes a CCSEM-EDX routine specifically developed for analysis of respirable dust samples from coal mines. The routine is verified based on reliability of results obtained on samples of known materials, and reproducibility of results obtained on a set of 10 dust samples collected in the field. The characteristics of the field samples are also discussed with respect to mine occupational environments.
Highlights
Respirable dust in underground coal mining environments has long been recognized as an occupational health hazard [1]
The rock dust sample was generated from a rock dust product provided by a partner mine; it is known to contain approximately 92% carbonates per separate X-ray diffraction (XRD)
Assuming that rock dust is the primary source of carbonate particles in the mines represented in the current study, the results presented here indicate that enough respirable rock dust particles may become airborne to contribute significantly to the total respirable dust concentration
Summary
Respirable dust in underground coal mining environments has long been recognized as an occupational health hazard [1]. Prior work in the authors’ research group led to the development of a standardized routine for characterizing respirable coal mine dust samples by particle size, shape, and chemistry distributions. Characterizing respirable coal mine dust samples by particle size, shape, and chemistry distributions It involves manual analysis with a scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive. CCSEM-EDX has the ability to analyze on a frame-by-frame basis and gather particle size, shape (e.g., aspect ratio), and elemental (i.e., chemical) characteristics for individual particles [37] Such analysis of particulates has been developing since the mid-1970s (e.g., see [43,44]), and significant progress has been made over the years to increase the rate, reliability, and level of data collection achievable per particle (e.g., see [45,46,47]). Particular dust characteristics determined for the fields samples are discussed with respect to the mine environments where they were collected
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