What’s Really in the Dust?

Speaker

Dr Nikky LaBranche

Abstract

Workplace dust exposure is typically represented through a set of exposure measurements – respirable dust, crystalline silica, diesel particulate matter and other contaminants. These measurements are essential for understanding exposure and assessing compliance, but every filter also contains a much richer record of what workers may actually be breathing.
This seminar will explore what we can learn when we look more closely at the particles themselves. Drawing on examples from engineered stone, underground coal mining, diesel particulate matter and degraded exhaust insulation, it will be seen how particle characterisation can reveal differences in composition, size and morphology; how the respirable aerosol can differ from the material being mined or processed; and how changing a process or control can change the particles as well as the concentration.
Also discussed, will be a look at emerging applications of AI for analysing increasingly large particle datasets. The key message is not that characterisation replaces conventional exposure monitoring, but that it can help us answer the next question: what is driving the exposure, and what else can the dust tell us?

Bio

Nikky LaBranche is Director of Professional Development and Program Leader for Dust and Respiratory Health at The University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute. A mining engineer and occupational dust researcher, her work focuses on understanding the characteristics of workplace aerosols and how they relate to exposure, sources and controls. Her research spans underground and surface mining, engineered stone, diesel particulate matter and other occupational respiratory hazards, using advanced particle characterisation to investigate questions that cannot be answered through exposure concentration alone. Nikky is also a Fellow and Chartered Professional of AusIMM, and a member of the AusIMM Board.