Evaluation of a new real time personal dust meter for engineering studies

摘要

A new personal respirable dust monitor developed by Thermo Electro Corporation under a project funded by the National Institute of Safety and Health (NIOSH) has generated promising results in underground coal mine testing. An Australian Coal Association Research Project (ACARP) funded study has been undertaken to evaluate the new real-time personal respirable dust monitor particularly in engineering studies. It can quickly highlight high dust situations and allow the situation to be corrected. The instrument has been tested for robustness and potential to be used as an engineering tool to evaluate the effectiveness of dust control strategies. This project has evaluated the personal dust monitor's (PDM) ability to quickly and accurately measure changes to longwall dust levels after implementation of an improvement. This has been done at two Australian longwall underground mines. Results of the tests demonstrate the ability of the instrument to increase understanding of the respirable dust exposure levels faced at underground manned points.