Quantitative evaluation of occupational hazards caused by dust in Sanxin Gold and Copper Mine

The occupational pneumoconiosis is a serious threat to the health of mine workers. In order to quantitatively evaluate the degree of dust hazards in the production chain, the dust health hazard evaluation model was established based on the USEPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) health risk evaluation method. The DALY (Disability Adjusted Life Year) value was introduced to quantitatively express the damage of dust to workers. By calculating the health risks and DALY values of different work types in different working faces, the key control points of dust hazards are identified as wind drilling workers, transportation workers, forklift drivers, and crushing positions. A probabilistic hazard quantification model was constructed by combining the health hazard evaluation model with Monte Carlo method to simulate the distribution of dust hazards at different working surfaces and analyze the sensitivity of exposure parameters. The results show that the mining workshop of this mine is exposed to the greatest dust hazard, with a worker DALY value of 1.15 × 10⁻¹a. In addition, the dust concentration (C), average exposure time (AT), exposure duration (ED) and exposure frequency (EF) have the most significant effects on dust health hazards.