[Evaluation of occupational exposure of workers engaged in mining of rock raw materials in the Sleza massif]

Abstract

In two serpentinite mines and in a factory producing asphalt pavements using serpentinite, exposure to dusts and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (WWA-fraction soluble in benzene) was assessed. In rock samples taken in the serpentinite mine and in dust samples from work posts crystalline phases were determined (using X-ray radiography and spectrometry in infrared). Also, morphology of dust particles was performed using electron microscopy. Both in the rock samples and in dust fibrous antigorite, a mineral of strong cancerogenic properties, was found. Total dust concentrations varied between 1.05 and 280 mg/m3, concentration of respirable mineral fibres from 0.01 to 3.56 fibre/cm3, and concentration of aromatic hydrocarbons varied between 266.7 and 850 micrograms/m3. The study will be continued concerning evaluation of biological effect of serpentinite in animal experiments and assessment of extraoccupational exposure of people living in the neighbourhood of serpentinite mines and plants processing this mineral.