LKAB Minerals Ltd, part of the international high-tech mining and mineral group, has placed their largest order of automated personnel de-dusting booths in the UK following the purchase of eleven JetBlack Safety units for its nine sites across the British Isles.
The booths will be used to protect staff from potentially harmful dust enabling the business to comply with its strict corporate health and safety procedures and its Safety First policy; an ongoing programme based on changing attitudes and views of safety across the LKAB Group and focussing on making safety a natural part of its everyday operations.
The booths have been installed at LKAB Minerals Ltd sites in Wicken, Derby, Radstock, Scunthorpe, Stockton-on-Tees and Runcorn Docks.
The booths have been fitted to ensure that potentially harmful dust from mineral processing or quarrying does not transfer into areas where staff members remove respiratory protective equipment, including site control rooms and offices. The de-dusting booths provide a safe, low-pressure hands-free air cleaning solution, where staff are automatically dedusted in a walkthrough booth, ensuring consistency of cleanliness.
Any member of staff wishing to leave the site first has to pass through one of the JetBlack Safety booths, ensuring effective dedusting before removing respiratory or other PPE protection.
This enables LKAB Minerals Ltd to not only comply with HSE guidelines relating to dust control procedures but also safeguards staff from the danger of dust exposure that could lead to lung cancer, silicosis, and lung diseases such as emphysema and bronchitis.
Sam Wheeler, Area Manager for LKAB Minerals Ltd, commented: "Having previously worked for business which had the Jetblack Safety booths, I was very well aware of the health and safety benefits that they bring."
"Alongside our UK Engineering & Safety director Peter Donohoe and Group Safety Manager Robert Shipman, we reviewed the latest generation of booths and were particularly impressed with their practical approach and power. The booths allow us to better protect our staff and their wellbeing through the removal of potential nuisance and harmful dust from our workplaces."
"Given our core focuses on Safety and People first, purchasing the booths has given us a significant tool to meet our Health and Safety Goals."
Matt Shelley, UK Sales Manager at JetBlack Safety, added: "Research shows that dust exposure poses a significant health risk to people working in industries where mining and minerals are involved, as dust can contain known carcinogens and silica. Those exposed to dust via contaminated clothing are 10 times more likely to be affected by fatal or debilitating respiratory diseases than people wearing dust-free workwear. That's why cleaning down and capturing dust particles is key, and it's here where JetBlack Safety delivers."
"LKAB joins our growing list of clients in the UK, EU and US including Tarmac, Hanson, Lafarge, Siemens and Kimberly Clark among many others."
The latest 2020 model installed across the nine LKAB Minerals Ltd sites dedusts staff swiftly, ensuring consistency of cleanliness. Using a series of nozzles blowing high volume, low-pressure air, dust is automatically removed from clothing and PPE. Dust particles as small as 0.3-micron are safely extracted and captured by a H14 HEPA extraction system.
These particles are collected for safe removal and disposal.
The 2020 model has filters that retain 99.95% of particles and benefits from the addition of a Magnehelic pressure gauge which shows when the filters need changing to ensure optimal extraction. It also features a blocked filter cut-out as well as an emergency stop button.
Operating an automatic clean down cycle when not in use, the automated JetBlack Safety booth removes and captures airborne dust disturbed on the user's exit, preventing particles from escaping into the wider environment.
Meeting or exceeding Occupational Safety and Health Administration requirements, the average clean down is complete within 20-30 seconds. Particles are collected for safe removal and disposal, ensuring that co-workers are not exposed to the transfer of dangerous dust.
Demand for JetBlack Safety's range of products is being driven, in part, by the Health and Safety Executive's roll-out of UK-wide dust-related inspections, which came into force from June 2019. A wide range of industries are now subject to checks and are at risk of enforcement action if poor standards of dust control are found. A recent HSE report found that 12,000 lung disease deaths each year are thought to be linked to past exposures to dust at work.
Jetblack UK
Jetblack US
