Iran Occupational Health

Background and aims: Dust emission is one of the main health and environmental problems during the crushing, screening and conveying process in mining company. The goal of this study was designing, implementation and evaluation of industrial ventilation and combination with a water spray for control the airborne particles as well as economic analysis on crushing unit of a mining company.

Methods: After ensuring the lack of destructive effect of humidity on material properties, a water spray system was designed and installed for settling some of produced dusts. Other emitted particles were also controlled by designing and implementation of local exhaust ventilation system.  This system was evaluated after installation. For collection of dust, three Stairmand cyclone with high efficiency were used. Finally, the efficiency of water spray and industrial ventilation systems was investigated as single and combined in the control of fugitive particles in ambient air, occupational exposure and environmental emission.

Results: The efficiency of the wet and ventilation system, alone and combined in reducing workplace dust concentration were 49%, 76% and 95%, respectively. Moreover, the efficiency of the wet, ventilation and combined system in reducing the exposure to repairable particles were 54%, 73% and 88%, respectively.