4. Air quality
The main air quality issue with mining is dust particles (Ghose and Majee,
2000). Large amounts in concentrations of dust can be a health hazard, exacerbating
respiratory disorders such as asthma and irritating the lungs and bronchial passages.
However, people invariably feel a loss of environmental amenity, due to dust deposits
or dust concentration, before their health is affected. Dust deposition is measured with
deposition gauges and reported in units of g/m2 per month of dust fallout. Pre-mining
background levels and total amounts of deposited dust are the usual measures against
which limits are set. Dust concentrations are monitored with mechanical high volume
air samples and limits are placed on average and peak hourly values.