a Department of Family Medicine and Program in Occupational Health and Environmental Medicine, McMaster University , Hamilton , Ontario , Canada.
J Occup Environ Hyg. 2014;11(2):111-6. doi: 10.1080/15459624.2013.843784.
A comprehensive survey of respirable dust and respirable silica in Ontario gold mines was conducted by the Ontario Ministry of Labor during 1978-1979. The aim was to assess the feasibility of introducing gravimetric sampling to replace the assessment method which used konimeters, a device which gave results in terms of number of particles per cubic centimeter (ppcc) of air. The study involved both laboratory and field assessments. The field assessment involved measurement of airborne respirable dust and respirable silica at all eight operating gold mines of the time. This article describes the details of the field assessment. A total of 288 long-term (7-8 hr) personal respirable dust air samples were collected from seven occupational categories in eight gold mines. The respirable silica (α-quartz) was determined by x-ray diffraction method. The results show that during 1978-1979, the industry wide mean respirable dust was about 1 mg/m(3), and the mean respirable silica was 0.08 mg/m(3.)The mean% silica in respirable dust was 7.5%. The data set would be useful in future epidemiological and health studies, as well as in assessment of workers' compensation claims for occupational diseases such as silicosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and autoimmune diseases such as renal disease and rheumatoid arthritis.
1978 年至 1979 年期间，安大略省劳动部对安大略省的金矿进行了一次可吸入粉尘和可吸入二氧化硅的综合调查。目的是评估采用重量采样法来代替使用空气动力学粒径计（konimeter）的评估方法的可行性，空气动力学粒径计的测量结果以每立方厘米空气中的颗粒数（ppcc）表示。该研究涉及实验室和现场评估。现场评估包括测量当时所有 8 家运营金矿的空气中可吸入粉尘和可吸入二氧化硅。本文描述了现场评估的细节。从 8 家金矿中的 7 个职业类别中采集了总计 288 个（7-8 小时）个人可吸入粉尘空气样本。使用 X 射线衍射法测定可吸入二氧化硅（α-石英）。结果表明，1978 年至 1979 年期间，行业范围内的平均可吸入粉尘约为 1 毫克/立方米，平均可吸入二氧化硅为 0.08 毫克/立方米，可吸入粉尘中的二氧化硅百分比为 7.5%。该数据集将有助于未来的流行病学和健康研究，以及评估矽肺、慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）等职业病以及肾病和类风湿性关节炎等自身免疫性疾病的工人赔偿索赔。
