Washington — NIOSH and the Mine Safety and Health Administration are looking for presenters for a virtual workshop on silica exposure and lung disease in the mining industry, scheduled for Oct. 22-23.
Anyone interested in presenting at the event should email by Aug. 19 a brief synopsis of his or her proposed presentation to Jessica Kogel at [email protected] and Roslyn Fontaine at [email protected].
At press time, a tentative agenda for the event included discussions on silica exposure and incidence rates, as well as proven technologies for mitigating miners’ exposure to respirable crystalline silica.
Results of a NIOSH study published in December show that surface coal miners – especially those involved in drilling operations – may be exposed to higher concentrations of respirable dust or quartz. This puts them at elevated risk of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, a deadly but preventable disease commonly known as black lung.
