Characteristics of respirable dust in eight appalachian coal mines: A dataset including particle size and mineralogy distributions, and metal and trace element mass concentrations

Emily Sarver; Cigdem Keles; Mohammad Rezaee

doi:10.1016/j.dib.2019.104032

Characteristics of respirable dust in eight appalachian coal mines: A dataset including particle size and mineralogy distributions, and metal and trace element mass concentrations

Data Brief. 2019 May 22:25:104032. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2019.104032. eCollection 2019 Aug.

Authors

Emily Sarver¹, Cigdem Keles¹, Mohammad Rezaee²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
² John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS) Energy Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.

Abstract

Respirable dust samples were collected in several key locations of eight underground coal mines in central and northern Appalachia. In total, there were 76 unique sampling events (i.e., specific location in a specific mine). Here, we present data from each event describing particle size and mineralogy class distributions across the ∼100-10,000nm size range, which were determined using SEM-EDX; and estimated mass concentrations of potentially bioaccessible and total acid-soluble metals and trace elements, which were determined using sequential digestions with digestate analysis by ICP-MS. Discussion of this dataset is included in a companion research article "Beyond conventional metrics: Comprehensive characterization of respirable coal mine dust" Sarver et al., 2019.

Keywords: Black lung; Coal mining; Mining engineering; Occupational health; Respirable dust.