Keeping Dust Under the Carpet

摘要

The paper gives results of a study of civil engineering fabrics applied to fugitive dust problems. The fabrics, commonly used for ground stabilization, subsurface drainage, railroad construction and maintenance, sediment control, and erosion control, are available from Celanese, DuPont, Monsanto, and Philips Fibers under the trade names of Typar, Bidim, Supac, and Mirafi. Use of the fabrics for air pollution control is a recent development and the subject of recent and future tests. Emissions from unpaved roads are reduced by covering the roads first with the fabric and then with coarse aggregate. Unpaved parking lots, inactive piles, and construction sites could be controlled similarly. During November 1979 tests on an unpaved road constructed with Bidim, the average reduction in total suspended particulate was 58% and in inhalable particulate was 46%. More tests are planned.