Tips for reducing dust from secondary sources during bagging
You probably have an exhaust ventilation system to clean the air at your plant's bagging operation, but do you know that the bagging operators can still be exposed to unacceptable dust levels? This article addresses some of the less-recognized, secondary dust sources that can cause a bagging operator's exposure to exceed acceptable limits. Sections describe a US Bureau of Mines study and the secondary dust sources the study identified, and then explain how to monitor dust exposure and how to reduce dust from your bagging operation's secondary dust sources. Although the study described here was conducted in mineral processing plants, the information can be applied to bagging operations in plants handling other dry bulk materials.
A bagging operator is typically exposed to more dust than other workers in your plant, especially if your plant produces a powder of 120 mesh or finer. But with any powder, the operator is exposed to dust from the filling process itself and from several secondary sources. Keeping the operator's dust exposure within acceptable limits requires identifying both primary and secondary dust sources and developing ways to reduce dust.