Correlation of Tests for Material Dustiness with Worker Exposure from the Bagging of Powders

Abstract A significant correlation was found between worker dust exposure from a bag packing operation and the results of two dustiness testers. The dustiness testers were the Heubach Dust Measurement Appliance and the Midwest Research Institute (MRI) Dustiness Tester. Both the Heubach and MRI dustiness tester predicted dust exposures to within an order of magnitude for the operation studied. The width of the prediction interval reflects typical variability in worker dust exposure measurements. Although the correlation between dustiness test results and dust exposures may be different for other operations, these results suggest that dustiness tests can be used to compare the relative potential of different materials to cause dust exposures. Heitbrink, W.A.; Todd, W.F.; Fischbach, T.J.: Correlation of Tests for Material Dustiness with Worker Exposure from the Bagging of Powders. Appl. Ind. Hyg. 4:12–16; 1989.