Road Dust Control

Posts Tagged ‘united states environmental protection agency’

Haul Road Dust Control is a vital element to the efficient operation of a mining business. Not just with regards to safety but also to the workers health.  Surface mining operations employ huge off-road haul trucks extensively to move material at mining properties. Past research, using the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) emissions factors for unpaved haul roads, has exposed that haul trucks produce the bulk of dust emissions from surface mining sites, accounting for just about 78%-97% of total dust emissions. This is yet greater with low quality haul road dust control programs.

Observations of dust emissions from haul trucks prove that if the dust emissions are uncontrolled, they can become a safety risk by means of impairing the operator’s visibility. This increases the chance for haul truck accidents. However, the greatest long-term health danger of dust generated from hauling operations is due to inhalation of the respirable dust middle diameter <4 micrometers (?m) along with thoracic dust, which is comparable to the EPA’s characterization of PM10 particulate matter with a median diameter <10 ?m. Exposure to respirable dust has always been thought a health hazard at surface mining operations, in particular if silica dust is there.

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