The harm of graphite dust to human body

Nowadays, people are paying more and more attention to their physical health, and they will pay special attention to some work that may affect their physical health. Many people are exposed to large amounts of graphite dust at work. Of course, as everyone thinks, graphite dust will have a certain impact on health. However, compared with the hazards of some other dusts, the harm of graphite dust to human health is not the most serious.

Symptoms of graphite pneumoconiosis

1. Mostly mild, progresses slowly, with dry throat in the early stage, cough, and sputum, which is black. Corresponding symptoms and signs may occur when there are complications.

2. Chest X-ray findings:

In the early stage, irregular small shadows and reticular shadows can be seen in the middle and lower lung areas. Against the background of the reticular shadows, small circular shadows of 1 to 2 mm can be seen with low density. Sometimes a slightly larger circular shadow can be seen. The lung markings are often increased. The density of the hilar shadow may increase, but a significant increase is rare. In a few cases, emphysema and perifocal emphysema may occur.

3. Pulmonary function test:

There may be mainly obstructive ventilation dysfunction and emphysema.

4. Other diseases that may be caused

Chronic bronchitis, tuberculosis, bronchiectasis and emphysema.

Measures to prevent graphite dust from harming human body:

1. Eliminate or reduce dust generation sources

Use closed pipelines for transportation and closed equipment for processing, or, under conditions that do not hinder operation, use semi-enclosed, shielded, and isolated facilities to prevent dust from escaping or confine dust to a local area to reduce its spread; reduce material drop and reduce dust; for hydrophilic, weakly viscous materials and dust, use humidification, spraying, steam spraying and other measures as much as possible to reduce dust spread during transportation, crushing, screening, mixing and cleaning.

(ii) Ventilation and dust removal

Ventilation and dust removal are divided into comprehensive mechanical ventilation and local mechanical ventilation according to the workplace and environmental conditions. Ventilation is to continuously deliver clean fresh air into the workplace, dilute the dust concentration in the air, and exhaust the polluted air to the outdoors, so that the harmful dust in the workplace is diluted to the corresponding maximum allowable concentration. During ventilation and exhaust, the airflow containing harmful substances should not pass through the breathing zone of the workers. Add dust collection and purification equipment: Based on the nature, concentration, dispersion and amount of dust, use appropriate dust removal and purification equipment to eliminate and purify dust in the air and prevent secondary dust.

3. Personal protection

Carry out targeted personal protection according to the harmful ways and harm channels of dust to human body. There are three ways that dust (or poisons) can harm the human body: one is inhalation, entering the body through the respiratory tract; the second is entering the body through the sweat glands, sebaceous glands, and hair follicles on the surface of the human body; the third is ingestion, entering the body through the digestive tract. So for the injury route, the personal protection measures are: first, cut off the route of dust entering the respiratory system. According to the different properties of dust, different types of dust masks and respirators are equipped (for some toxic dusts, gas masks should also be worn); secondly, prevent dust from contacting the skin. Correctly wear work clothes (sometimes you may also need to wear overalls or hooded work clothes), helmets (the human head is where sweat glands, skin fat and hair follicles are more concentrated), glasses, etc.; third, it is prohibited to eat, smoke, drink water, etc. at the dust operation site.