Industrial Hygiene (also termed Occupational Hygiene) in the mining industry is the science and practice of anticipating, recognising, evaluating, and controlling workplace environmental factors, stresses, and hazards — biological, chemical, physical, and ergonomic — that may cause occupational illness, impair health, or significantly affect the wellbeing of workers employed in bauxite, gold, iron ore, and diamond mining operations. Occupational hygienists in mining conduct systematic exposure assessments to identify and quantify hazards including respirable crystalline silica (RCS) dust, which causes silicosis; coal dust causing pneumoconiosis; diesel particulate matter (DPM) from underground diesel equipment; arsenic and lead in gold ore processing; caustic soda and alumina dust in bauxite refining; whole-body and hand-arm vibration from heavy equipment; noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) from blasting, crushing, and heavy machinery; extreme heat stress in deep underground gold mines and tropical surface bauxite operations; chemical exposures from cyanide, acid, and solvents; and ergonomic risks from manual handling. Exposure monitoring involves personal air sampling, biological monitoring (blood lead, urinary arsenic), noise dosimetry, and heat stress indices. Controls follow the hierarchy of controls — elimination, substitution, engineering controls (ventilation, enclosures), administrative controls (job rotation, exposure limits), and personal protective equipment (PPE). Industrial hygiene programmes are underpinned by regulatory occupational exposure limits (OELs) and standards such as those published by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH).
