In an effort to prevent the development of silicosis, MSHA regulates the exposure of mine workers to silica. For coal mining operations, quartz levels up to 5% in compliance dust samples do not alter the respirable dust standard of 2 mg/m3. However, if the percent of quartz in the sample exceeds 5%, a reduced dust standard is calculated by dividing 10 by the percent quartz. For example, if a sample contains 10% quartz, the reduced standard would be equal to 1 mg/m3 (10 ÷ 10% quartz). In essence, these regulations limit the exposure to respirable quartz to 100 μg/m3, although this limit is not specifically quantified in the regulations. MSHA compliance sampling data identify those occupations in coal mining that are at high risk for overexposure to quartz. Figure 1-4 shows the percentage of samples collected by MSHA inspectors that exceeded reduced permissible exposure limits (PELs) for several high-risk occupations in coal mining.
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