Elaborating on the safety and health risks related to rare earth production activities, he said that in Malaysia, rare earths were either by-product of tin mining and the subsequent processing of the tin tailing, or amang, for the extraction of valuable minerals, or imported as rare earth ores and concentrates to be processed into rare earth oxides.
As such, he said the Malaysian experience, especially during amang processing, had witnessed both wet gravity separation, dry high magnetic and electrostatic physical separation methods.
The impact of rare earth processing on occupational safety and health would be in the form of dry separation methods, which would result in dusty working environment, he said.
Dr Lee, the lead spokesman of a working group that had produced the Rare Earth Report under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, in collaboration with the National Professors’ Council, said suspended dust particles were basically mineral dust and silica, which had been shown to be health hazards when inhaled and ingested.
Besides poor ventilation of the dusty working areas, poor hygiene on the part of the workers, and the absence of, or improper use of personal protective equipment (such as respirators) will increase the likelihood of exposure and aggravate the risk from lung-related diseases such as pneumoconiosis, usually caused by the inhalation of dust, often in mines.
Dr Lee said that studies had shown potential lung diseases associated with rare earths, and that it was unfortunate that a report on epidemiological studies related to such exposure in Malaysia was significantly absent.
He also said that health risks related to radiation exposure from naturally occurring radionuclides (NOR) present in rare earth minerals were dependent on the doses received.
Doses received were dependent on the activities of NOR in these raw minerals, rare earth concentrates, and residues, he said. -- BERNAMA
Source : New Straits Times
0 Comments