Viewpoint on occupational health in the oil-shale industry

Conference · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1981

OSTI ID:6187876

Voelz, G L; Grier, R S; Hargis, K M

In assessing the potential health and safety hazards which may be expected in a large-scale oil shale industry, the types of operations that will be utilized to extract oil from oil shale are examined. These are broadly characterized as mining, raw shale processing and handling, retorting and refining, and spent shale disposal. With few exceptions, these operations in shale oil production are similar to operations in existing industries. Health and safety risks and occupational health controls are also expected to be similar. To date medical studies on workers in the oil shale industry who have been exposed to shale dusts and oil products have indicated that the chief problem areas are pneumoconiosis and skin cancers. A broad viewpoint of the prospective occupational health problems in the oil shale industry can be obtained by reviewing similar activities and exposures in other industrial operations. This viewpoint would suggest that the prospective problems can be controlled adequately by conventional methods of worker protection. Several unique situations do exist in this industry. The mining and material handling of tonnages of oil shale exceeds any experience in other mining activities. This is a problem of scale. It seems unlikely that it will produce new safety problems. The in situ mining offers the unique situation of burning and abandoned underground retorts in near proximity to work forces preparing future in situ retorts. The potential of exposures to dusts, gases and vapors will simply have to be measured as such operations come on stream. Measurements made to date have not shown unique hazards to exist, although existing data are limited to demonstration-scale retorts burning one-at-a-time under normal conditions.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 6187876
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-81-2309; CONF-810838-1; ON: DE81028698
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040700 -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Health & Safety
041000 -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Environmental Aspects
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290300 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
294004 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Oil Shales & Tar Sands
560300* -- Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
CARCINOGENESIS
DISEASES
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
INDUSTRY
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
OIL SHALE INDUSTRY
PATHOGENESIS
PNEUMOCONIOSES
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM DISEASES
SAFETY