Obiettivo According to Annex I of the Council Directive of 28 June 1990 on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens at work (90/394/EEC), PAH in hard coal dust may represent a cancer risk. However, the Directive does not specify the levels from which hard coal dust should be regarded as containing PAH, and up to now no exposure limit values have been fixed. Hard coal dust will require a limitation with reference to mass content so that the term 'PAH present in hard coal dust' used in the Council Directive can be precisely defined. The envisaged definition should take account of analytical aspects and the type of PAH constituents occurring. It is intended, by means of a reasonable limitation and taking account of the elimination of risk, to exclude specific areas from the detection obligation. For this it is necessary to examine coal samples from seams of different ranks. These tests are to be extended to specific maceral types in order to establish the extent to which a PAH level is linked with different types. Finally, tests will be carried out to determine whether the provisions on PAH levels remain consistent with the provisions of the CEN standards on accuracy and specificity or whether in the case of very low levels error distribution is so large that the meaningfulness of analysis is called into question. A compilation of the measurement and analysis results obtained is to be prepared. Furthermore, it will be established whether in the case of the permissable respirable dust concentrations in coal mining, where dirt content is normally high, it is still possible to determine the PAH level. PAH levels will be compared with those in other areas, eg coking plants, tar works, etc in order to assess whether PAH in hard coal dust really represent an increased relative risk. The literature does not mention any cases of lung cancer caused by PAH in hard coal dust. All risk evaluations are based on exposure to pyrolysis products in coking plants, pitch production, electrographite production, aluminium production, etc. It may be assumed that PAH levels in hard coal dust are considerably lower, so that even with linear extrapolation the risk is probably negligible. As systematic studies of PAH levels in hard coal dust have never been undertaken, the research is vital to the obtaining of information on which to base suitable health protection measures. Plan of work: - Collection of coal samples from seams of different ranks - Analysis of these samples to identify specific PAH constituents, particularly BaP - Determination of PAH levels (particularly BaP) in various coal maceral types - Collection of airborne dust samples and analysis with reference to PAH - Determination of detection limits for PAH/individual PAH constituents - Error estimation for overall method, also with reference to possible sample amounts to be collected by means of sampling devices used in mining - Compilation of results in a register based on coal rank. Programma(i) ECSC-MINEHYG 6C - Sixth research programme (ECSC) "Industrial Hygiene in Mines", 1990-1993 Argomento(i) 3 - Dust measurement and determination of dust properties Invito a presentare proposte Data not available Meccanismo di finanziamento Data not available Coordinatore Institut für Gefahrstoff-Forschung der Bergbau-Berufsgenossenschaft Contributo UE Nessun dato Indirizzo Waldring 97 44789 Bochum Germania Mostra sulla mappa Costo totale Nessun dato
