You already know how the dust and chemical air pollution associated with grain mills and elevators can damage our respiratory health in the long term if you’ve read the previous post. For today, we will discuss one of the most severe consequences of air pollution within grain processing plants – grain dust explosions.
Here’s a heads-up to those who are sensitive or allergic to dust, or suffer from respiratory illnesses: try to avoid getting a job at a grain mill.
Why? Because grain mills, elevators, and other similar processing plants are rich sources of point-source air pollution. Although somewhat dated, this journal article by Mclouth and Paulus (1961) gives a succinct overview of the types of air pollution that may be present in grain mills and elevators.