Objective: To explore the occupational health risk level of pneumoconiosis caused by dust exposure in a given area of Hubei province.
Methods: From April 2021 to October 2021, 18 quarries were randomly selected in the areas where quarries were concentrated in Hubei Province to conduct on-site hygiene investigation and detection. A total of 384 workers were employed in the above quarries, and 293 workers were exposed to dust. The International Mining and Metals Commission's risk rating table method and occupational hazard risk index method were used to analyze the occupational health risk level from total and respirable dust views, respectively. Meanwhile, the square weighted Kappa test was performed to analyze the consistency between two risk assessment method.
Results: The median dust exposure rate of workers in the above18 enterprises was 73.22%, small, underground mining, and barite quarries had relatively higher dust exposure rates(all median were 100.00%). The medians of daily dust exposure time, personal protective equipment wearing rate, free silica content of dust, 8-hour time weighted average exposure concentration of total dust and respirable dust in each assessment indicator were 6-8 hours, 0%-24.00%, 1.69%-35.30%, 0.56-3.70 mg/m~3, and 0.33-1.20 mg/m~3, respectively. Occupational health risk assessment result showed the overall occupational health risk levels of quarries, as well as different production scales and mining method, were all low. Among different positions, wind driller and tunneling worker had high and medium occupational health risk, respectively, and the rest of the positions had low or very low risk. International Council on Mining and Mentals(ICMM) risk rating table method and the INDEX method consistency analyses showed that these two risk assessment method had strong consistency in terms of total dust(Kappa value was 0.65(95%CI 0.57-0.73)), and general consistency in term of respirable dust(Kappa value was 0.51(95%CI 0.39-0.62)).
Conclusion: The overall occupational health risk level of pneumoconiosis caused by dust exposure in quarries was low, but risk levels were higher for wind driller and tunneling worker.
Keywords: dust; occupational health risk assessment; pneumoconiosis; quarry.