使用碳酸钙防治阿巴拉契亚煤田煤肺病技术可行性讨论(英文)

Feasibility study to use calcite in mitigating black lung problems in Appalachian coal fields

煤肺病是世界煤炭工业最严重的职业病。通常煤肺病的成因取决于工作环境中可吸尘浓度及工人吸尘时间。一项最近的研究表明,煤尘的毒性由煤的化学成份決定。化学成分的差异是导致美国东部煤田煤肺病的发病率高于美国西部煤田的主要原因。在阿巴拉契亚(东部)煤成份中,生物可用铁(bio-available iron,BAI)和石英成分是导致煤肺病的两大直接因素。美国西部煤所含碳酸钙有效地阻止了煤中的铁向生物可用铁的转化过程,从而减少了西部煤田煤肺发病率,此发现能合理地解释阿巴拉契亚与西部煤田煤肺发病率的巨大区域差别。根据该发现,我们提议除继续使用传统的降尘技术外,应把减少及消除煤尘的毒性作为开发防治煤肺病技术的新方向。为了遏制并扭转阿巴拉契亚煤田近期煤肺发病率回升的趋势,作者提出了将碳酸钙引入含生物可用铁的煤或煤尘的区域性非传统防煤尘新技术并对其进行了可行性讨论。

The coal workers＇ pneumoconiosis （CWP）has been considered as the most serious health problem in the coal mining industry. In general,the development of CWP in a worker＇ s lung depends on the average concentration and the length of exposure to the respirable coal dust in the working environ- ment. Recently, it has been shown that toxicity of coal dust, determined by chemical components in the coals is critical and contributes to the vast regional differences in the prevalence of CWP. For example, bio-available iron （BAI）and quartz in the Appalachian coal dusts play an important adverse role in the CWP development. The presence of calcite in the Western US coal seams prevents iron from becoming bioavailable and seems to significantly reduce CWP prevalence in the region, as this is evidenced by the observed significant regional difference in the prevalence of CWP between the coal miners in the West- ern US and Appalachian coal mine regions. Based on these findings, we propose to reduce coal dust tox- icity in addition to the existing efforts of reducing coal dust concentration for CWP prevention. In this study, the feasibility of artificially introducing calcite to BAI-containing coals as a non-conventional dust control technology to mitigate the recent increase in CWP in Aooalachian coal mines is evaluated.