MSHA's (Mine Safety and Health Administration's) Procedure for Determining Quartz Content of Respirable Coal Mine Dust

摘要

In accordance with Section 205 of the 1969 Federal Coal Mine Safety and Health Act, the Mine Safety and Health Administration instituted a program to establish the applicable respirable dust standard when the quartz content of respirable dust in the mine atmosphere was more than 5 percent. The analytical method originally used to determine the amount of quartz in the mine atmosphere required 1 to 4 milligrams of respirable dust before a quartz determination could be made. Because samples collected during a coal mine health inspection often contained less than the amount required for a quartz analysis, the number of coal mines with quartz determinations was limited. This paper discusses the modifications made to the analytical procedure and the experimental work conducted to demonstrate that the analytical results obtained with the modified method are equivalent to those obtained with the original method.