Abstract

ORCHE GARCIA, Enrique. Air quality in the underground museum. Proposal of reference indices. REV. MAMYM [online]. 2020, vol.5, n.2, pp.37-58. ISSN 2519-5352.

Abstract Musealized underground mines (MMS) are an alternative to the closure of exploitations which is increasingly widespread in many different countries. They are galleries or other underground spaces prepared to be visited by interested people for recreational or cultural purposes. In Spain they receive 500,000 annual visitors. Despite this, they lack specific legislation, which is especially worrying if the unregulated aspects concern their safety. One of the fundamental components of this is the surveillance and control of the air quality inthese spaces. As there is no reference regulation, the present work deals with the possibility of establishing it from the abundant legislation in Spain. For this, it has been necessary to investigate the general problems of the MMS and, from its approximate census, establish the gases and other elements that can pollute the air in it. Once these are known, the broad current legislation and non-binding official regulations that may be applicable in Spain have been analyzed, and the one that can be used in said facilities has been selected considering the specific peculiarity of the MMS. The results obtained show that this initiative is perfectly possible and feasible, so that maximum and minimum safety limits have been established for the different components of the atmosphere in these underground places such as gases, vapors, ionizing radiation, dust, temperature, humidity, relative flow and velocity of the ventilation air. In total, sixteen limit values have been established that, without difficulty, could be applied to these underground installations as they are already being used in other Spanish industrial sectors. By extrapolation, these limit values could be extrapolated to non-Spanish mines that are in similar situations. In any case, the task carried out must be undertaken by the competent public administration for which it is responsible.

Keywords : Air quality; legislation; museums; underground mining; underground spaces.

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