RE: A dose of reality [ U-mining, US vs. Czech]

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

On Mon, 3 Apr 2000, Franta, Jaroslav wrote:
> 
> ...as you correctly say, the US ones -- particularly those in the arid
> south-western region of the country -- were dusty, as are probably most such
> mines in the world  ( these days the mines use enormous water-tanker-trucks
> to hose down ore piles periodically, to avoid dust generation during truck
> loading operations, etc. - the Rossing mine in Namibia published some nice
> pictures of these activities in an old edition of their quarterly magazine,
> as well as their plant safety pamphlets).
> 
> ...but the Czech ones were notoriously wet, sloppy, muddy affairs, due to
> natural spring water seeping in through the rock (they were underground
> mines, as opposed to the open-pit mine in Namibia, and, I believe, most of
> the western US mines -- if anyone knows what TYPE of US mine the radon
> studies were carried out in, please correct me 

	--The U.S. mines that were the basis for studying effects of radon
were underground, but they were dry rather than wet as in the Czech mines.
Actually, the environment in them is quite pleasant, although that may be
because they are very heavily ventillated with fresh air now, as a means
of reducing radon levels. Heavy metals are not a problem -- at least they
are never discussed as a problem, as they are in the Czech mines. In the
Czech mines, the workers were constantly suffering from colds and other
respiratory illnesses, but the U.S. miners had no such problems.


). In fact I recall that the
> name "pitchblende" originates with the muddy form of the ore from Jachimov
> (Joachimstal in Ger.). Besides the water, there were poisonous heavy metals
> in the ore (other than U)

	--These mines were famous since the middle ages. For example they
were the principal European silver mines in the 1700s; coins minted from
the silver were known as "Joachimsthalers" which got shortened to
"thalers", which is the origin of our word "dollars". They were also used
for mining other heavy metals. They also have lots of arsenic.
	These differences from the U.S. mines were the original reason for
studying health effects of radon in U.S. mines


Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu


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