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Bericht des silikose-forschungsinstituts der bergbau-berufsgenossenschaft
Aerosol Science, 1973, Vol. 4, pp. 83 to 84. Pergamon Press. Printed in Great Britain.
BOOK REVIEWS Bericht des Silikose-Forschungsinsfituts der Bergbau-Beruf~enossenschaft, 1971. pp. 155. 463 Bochum, Hundscbeidstrasse 18, Germany. THE PREVIOUSreport of the Silicosis Research Institute was reviewed in Vol. 3 (5) p. 411 of this Journal. 1971 has been another active year, 5 dissertations and 41 papers having been published. The first three papers, by Bauer, deal with dust suppression in notoriously tiresome situations in coal mines; one is about a new wet process for fully mechanised faces, one is on shot firing and one on transfer points from belt conveyors to haulage. Bruckmann used a six stage Andersen sampler underground to study the distribution of dust by weight and quartz content, the latter peaking at 2 or 3 pm. The correlation of Tyndallscope reading with the weight of fine dust collected with a Dr~iger apparatus was poor. A new idea for filtering dust comes from Walkenhorst who demonstrates that by spraying oil droplets into a filter of coarse wire mesh, quite efficient collection of fine dust can be achieved at high air velocities, deposition being due to the inertia of the particles. By separating alternate layers of wire grid with insulating gauze and charging the successive wire grids to 600 V he also obtained high e/ficiencies. The electric field held the particles firmly on the wires, like the oil films. Werner writes about the testing of dust respirators. The dust is generated by a blunt drill operating on sandstone and has no particles greater than 5/~m dia., 90 per cent by number being below 3/~m. A Leitz Tyndallometer is used to measure dust concentration. A new sampling apparatus has been developed by Zebel. It incorporates a pre-impactor, a sedimentation chamber and an automatic sample changer with a store for 20 samples. Eight papers are concerned with biological effects. Baumann and Rasche tested the effects on macrophage respiration of standardized quartz dusts of narrow particle size range. Iravani measured the bronchial calibre in isolated preparations of rat lung showing that the mucus-coated epithelium of the large and middle bronchi exhibited deep longitudinal folds. Increase in temperature caused the folds to open out to a smooth surface with an increase in diameter of the lumen. Chemical bronchodilators were also used. Using an oesophageal catheter and integrating pneumotachograph, Islam measured lung and thoracic compliance of a number of hospital patients; the method is not dependent on the subject's cooperation and is adapted to routine examinations. Kammler studied the effects of loss of respiratory tissue due to lung resection. Rasche examined enzyme activity in blood and sputum. Reicbel caused normal and bronchitic subjects to inhale 20 mg/m 3 SO2 and measured respiratory resistance. Weller, experimenting with rats, used PVNO as a therapeutic agent, looking for the influence of the age of silicotic lesions on its beneficial effect. He also carried out experiments on the effect of quartz content in pneumoconiosis due to mixture of coal and quartz dusts. C. N. DAVmS
83
BOOK REVIEWS Bericht des Silikose-Forschungsinsfituts der Bergbau-Beruf~enossenschaft, 1971. pp. 155. 463 Bochum, Hundscbeidstrasse 18, Germany. THE PREVIOUSreport of the Silicosis Research Institute was reviewed in Vol. 3 (5) p. 411 of this Journal. 1971 has been another active year, 5 dissertations and 41 papers having been published. The first three papers, by Bauer, deal with dust suppression in notoriously tiresome situations in coal mines; one is about a new wet process for fully mechanised faces, one is on shot firing and one on transfer points from belt conveyors to haulage. Bruckmann used a six stage Andersen sampler underground to study the distribution of dust by weight and quartz content, the latter peaking at 2 or 3 pm. The correlation of Tyndallscope reading with the weight of fine dust collected with a Dr~iger apparatus was poor. A new idea for filtering dust comes from Walkenhorst who demonstrates that by spraying oil droplets into a filter of coarse wire mesh, quite efficient collection of fine dust can be achieved at high air velocities, deposition being due to the inertia of the particles. By separating alternate layers of wire grid with insulating gauze and charging the successive wire grids to 600 V he also obtained high e/ficiencies. The electric field held the particles firmly on the wires, like the oil films. Werner writes about the testing of dust respirators. The dust is generated by a blunt drill operating on sandstone and has no particles greater than 5/~m dia., 90 per cent by number being below 3/~m. A Leitz Tyndallometer is used to measure dust concentration. A new sampling apparatus has been developed by Zebel. It incorporates a pre-impactor, a sedimentation chamber and an automatic sample changer with a store for 20 samples. Eight papers are concerned with biological effects. Baumann and Rasche tested the effects on macrophage respiration of standardized quartz dusts of narrow particle size range. Iravani measured the bronchial calibre in isolated preparations of rat lung showing that the mucus-coated epithelium of the large and middle bronchi exhibited deep longitudinal folds. Increase in temperature caused the folds to open out to a smooth surface with an increase in diameter of the lumen. Chemical bronchodilators were also used. Using an oesophageal catheter and integrating pneumotachograph, Islam measured lung and thoracic compliance of a number of hospital patients; the method is not dependent on the subject's cooperation and is adapted to routine examinations. Kammler studied the effects of loss of respiratory tissue due to lung resection. Rasche examined enzyme activity in blood and sputum. Reicbel caused normal and bronchitic subjects to inhale 20 mg/m 3 SO2 and measured respiratory resistance. Weller, experimenting with rats, used PVNO as a therapeutic agent, looking for the influence of the age of silicotic lesions on its beneficial effect. He also carried out experiments on the effect of quartz content in pneumoconiosis due to mixture of coal and quartz dusts. C. N. DAVmS
83