There is a growing concern in mining community about the contribution of nano-particulates to miner’s health. Despite the health influence of respirable dusts and associated lung diseases have been recognized for decades in the mining industry, the nano-scale particulates accompanying with complicated physiochemical properties and their enormous contribution in quantity have been drawing attentions only in recent a few years because of the advancement of nano-science discipline. In this review, we examine the current regulations of dusts exposure and the dominant mass-based monitoring methods to point out the ignorance of nano-particulates in mining industry. The recognized mining-related nano-particulates sources are summarized to identify the mechanically generated finer particulates including particles and aerosols. In addition, the mechanism of adverse health impact on miner with exposure to nano-scale particulates is discussed in a detail to emphasize their substantial detriment as a potential respiratory hazard. Characterization of the complex physiochemical properties of nano-particulates are then summarized and discussed because these properties could be different from regular respirable dusts due to their dramatically increased surface area and particulate counts. The intent of this review is to demonstrate the potential of adverse health effect of nano-particulate on the mine personals throughout the mining cycle and to identify the research gaps of the mine nano-particulate characterization and quantification. We suggest that further understanding of the mining induced nano-particulate properties and their pathogenesis are critical for the future engineering control measure to mitigate the potential health threat for future miners.

采矿界越来越关注纳米颗粒对矿工健康的贡献。尽管可吸入粉尘和相关的肺部疾病对健康的影响已在采矿业中被认可了数十年，但由于其复杂的物理化学性质及其在数量上的巨大贡献，纳米级颗粒仅在最近几年才引起关注。纳米科学学科的发展。在这篇综述中，我们研究了粉尘暴露的现行法规以及基于质量的主要监测方法，以指出采矿业中纳米颗粒的无知。总结公认的与采矿有关的纳米颗粒源，以识别机械产生的较细颗粒，包括颗粒和气溶胶。此外，详细讨论了矿工接触纳米级颗粒对矿工的不利健康影响的机制，以强调矿工对潜在呼吸道危害的重大损害。然后总结并讨论了纳米微粒复杂的物理化学特性的表征，因为这些特性可能会与常规可吸入粉尘有所不同，因为它们的表面积和微粒数量会急剧增加。这篇综述的目的是证明在整个采矿周期中纳米颗粒对矿山人员的不利健康影响，并确定纳米颗粒表征和定量研究的空白。