Exposure to Respirable Dust: Case Studies of Jharia and Raniganj Coalfields

Respirable dust poses serious health problems to mine workers. Prolonged exposure to respirable dust at the workplace can cause irreversible damages to miners’ health. Different categories of workers get exposed to different dust levels depending on many factors like type of workings, activity, period of exposure, etc. In this paper authors have presented results of extensive airborne respirable dust survey carried out in various coal mines using bord and pillar (B&P) method of working. These mines were selected at random from Jharia and Raniganj Coalfields with respect to their degree of mechanisation, e.g. manual, semi-mechanised and mechanised. The generated data have been analysed. The objective of the study was to identify vulnerable groups of workers exposed to respirable dust and to assess their actual exposure. In the paper, the authors have also discussed the present status of working conditions in mines in respect of actual effective working hours, ventilation and relative humidity.