Journal of Environmental Biology

Coalmine dust concentration and rate of tuberculosis infection

around Ib Valley Coalfield, Orissa, India

 

Haraprasad Mohapatra¹, Shreerup Goswami*² and Dologobinda Dey³

 

¹Kaptipada College, Kaptipada, Mayurbhanj - 757 040, India

²Department of Geology, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack - 753 003, India

³Udala College, Udala, Mayurbhanj - 757 041, India

 

(Received: July 11, 2009; Revised received: November 30, 2009; Re-revised received: January 25, 2010; Accepted: February 26, 2010)

 

Abstract: The miners as well as the inhabitants vicinity to the mining areas are generally susceptible to the respiratory disorders due to constant exposure to the coalmine dust for a prolonged period. In this paper, the dust concentration and dust dose associated with the rate of tuberculosis around the major part of Ib Valley Coalfield (Belpahar and Brajarajnagar area) have been analysed. Several field trips around Ib Valley Coalfield have been conducted for consecutively three years (2005, 2006 and 2007) to evaluate the present status of the dust concentration and rate of tuberculosis infection. It was observed that the dust concentrations of different residential places as well as the places vicinity to the opencast mining projects have been increased in the subsequent years of investigation. As a result, the dust doses of various residential places have also increased in a parallel manner. The dust doses of various mining sites range from 25.51 to 37.08 mg, 34.76 to 41.03 mg and 37.8 to 44.49 mg during 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively. Interestingly, in most of the mining sites the dust doses are more than the safe dust does (32 mg). An attempt has been made to correlate the dust concentration with tuberculosis infection in the area by making a questionnaire survey. Early symptoms of tuberculosis were reported in case of 121 out of 205, 129 out of 212 and 145 out of 220 inhabitants during 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively. The study clearly revealed that the tuberculosis patients have been increased significantly in the successive years of investigation.

Key words: Dust, Tuberculosis, Ib Valley Coalfield, Coal mining

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