Scientific conception of coal mine dust control and occupational safety

Public health is prioritized in national development strategy of China. Pneumoconiosis,a major occu-pational safety and health challenge in coal workers,has significantly retarded the development of “healthy China”. In this pa- per,from the coal mine dust status,fundamental research,key technical equipment,policy standards and other aspects of the system,after summarizing and analyzing existing factors in coal mine dust prevention and control,as well as oc- cupational safety and health in China,a scientific concept of ensuring coal workers lifelong healthy is proposed to em- brace both the challenge and the opportunity. This concept is based on multidisciplinary application by combining science,engineering and medicine. It is supported by cutting edge informatics technologies,such as big data,cloud com- puting,artificial intelligence,as well as the Internet of Things. This concept develops and innovates a “ Four-in-One” scientific research method to solve several core issues including harmless coal mining operations,personalized and pre- cise occupational disease treatment,intelligent early warning alert system in occupational safety and health. It will ulti- mately ensure coal mine workers’ lifelong healthy. The research proposes six key scientific questions. Also,around the mechanism of coal mine dust production and efficient control theory of high concentration dust from separate sources, the pathogenesis of multi-dimensional and multi-level life information flow in coal mine workers’ pneumoconiosis,coal mine dust-free mining and precise dust control technology equipment,and coal mine workers’ pneumoconiosis intelli- gent diagnosis and precise treatment technology equipment,five main research directions for coal mine dust prevention and control are proposed. China should strengthen the collaborative innovation and scientific research platform con- struction with the mixture of medical,science,engineering,carry out fundamental research in depth,develop complete sets of technology and equipment suitable for coal mine production,value the construction of demonstration projects and transformation of achievements,strengthen policy support dynamics and improve the standards system,construct long-term mechanism of coal mine dust control and occupational safety,as well as occupational safety and health,and achieve the dust free operation and less (zero) incidence of occupational diseases in the future. The coal mine occupa- tional safety and health will contribute to the healthy China development.