Research allays longwall dust

Longwall shearer operators have to walk with their machines along the face to mine coal, but some must endure more respirable dust than others. The Bureau of Mines is willing to help any mine having trouble keeping dust levels below the Federal standard of 2.0 mg/m/sup 3/. Recently, Robert A. Jankowski and others at the Bureau of Mines (BoM) completed a survey of twelve US longwall mines. With the cooperation of mine operators and Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) officials, they gathered information on longwall double-drum shearer installations from compliance records. Six of the operations examined were ''clean'' or regularly in compliance with the dust standard, while the other six had great difficulty in complying. Subsequently, BoM conducted an investigation into the reasons for the non-compliance and a search for possible solutions to the problems.