New Monitor Kicks Up a Dust Storm
A new device called a personal dust monitor could soon bring the hazardous and dirty job of underground coal mining a step further into the 21st century.
But even some fans of the technology say its broad adoption by the mining industry faces hurdles, as business, regulators and labor all weigh in on how it should be used.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. of Waltham, Mass., a maker of equipment for high-tech laboratories, spent more than a decade developing and testing the so-called PDM 3600 in conjunction with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH.
