National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Office of Mine Safety and Health Research, Pittsburgh, PA 15236, USA.
J Occup Environ Hyg. 2013;10(9):468-77. doi: 10.1080/15459624.2013.818240.
Enclosed cab filtration systems are typically used on mobile mining equipment to reduce miners' exposure to airborne dust generated during mining operations. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Office of Mine Safety and Health Research (OMSHR) has recently worked with a mining equipment manufacturer to examine a new cab filtration system design for underground industrial minerals equipment. This cab filtration system uses a combination of three particulate filters to reduce equipment operators' exposure to dust and diesel particulates present in underground industrial mineral mines. NIOSH initially examined this cab filtration system using a two-instrument particle counting method at the equipment company's manufacturing shop facility to assess several alternative filters. This cab filtration system design was further studied on several pieces of equipment during a two- to seven-month period at two underground limestone mines. The two-instrument particle counting method was used outside the underground mine at the end of the production shifts to regularly test the cabs' long-term protection factor performance with particulates present in the ambient air. This particle counting method showed that three of the four cabs achieved protection factors greater than 1,000 during the field studies. The fourth cab did not perform at this level because it had a damaged filter in the system. The particle counting measurements of submicron particles present in the ambient air were shown to be a timely and useful quantification method in assessing cab performance during these field studies.
密闭驾驶室过滤系统通常用于移动采矿设备，以减少矿工在采矿作业过程中吸入空气中粉尘的暴露。美国国家职业安全与健康研究所（NIOSH）矿山安全与健康研究办公室（OMSHR）最近与一家采矿设备制造商合作，研究一种用于地下工业矿物设备的新型驾驶室过滤系统设计。该驾驶室过滤系统使用三种颗粒物过滤器的组合来减少设备操作人员在地下工业矿物矿中接触到的粉尘和柴油颗粒物。NIOSH 最初在设备公司的制造车间使用两种仪器颗粒物计数法来检查这种驾驶室过滤系统，以评估几种替代过滤器。在两个地下石灰石矿的两到七个月期间，对该驾驶室过滤系统设计在若干设备上进行了进一步研究。在生产班次结束时，在地下矿山外使用两种仪器颗粒物计数法定期测试驾驶室在环境空气中存在颗粒物时的长期保护因子性能。该颗粒物计数法表明，在现场研究期间，四个驾驶室中有三个达到了大于 1000 的保护因子。第四个驾驶室没有达到这个水平，因为系统中的一个过滤器损坏了。环境空气中亚微米颗粒物的颗粒物计数测量结果表明，在这些现场研究中，该方法是一种及时且有用的评估驾驶室性能的定量方法。
