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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

The noise of mobile machines used in surface coal mines: operator exposure, source diagnosis, potential noise control treatments. Open file report (final), June 1976-December 1977

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5512464

A summary of earlier work is presented indicating that about 25,000 machine operators employed in U.S. surface coal mines (or about 45 pct of all such operators), suffer greater noise exposures than are permitted by the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, with the predominant fraction of these overexposures ascribable to tracked dozers, wheeled front-end loaders, haulers, and diesel-powered shovels and draglines. The results of noise studies of two dozers, three loaders, and two draglines are discussed, and their predominant noise sources and source-to-operator transmission paths are identified. Estimates are developed of the retrofits needed to quiet these machines to bring them into compliance with the Act.

Research Organization:
Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, Inc., Cambridge, MA (USA)
OSTI ID:
5512464
Report Number(s):
PB-299538
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English