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Additional safety warning for construction dust
The updated Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1st October 2012 now also
targets to reduce the risks associated with silica, wood and gypsum dusts.
Construction workers are one of the at-risk groups within this because of the dust that they
breathe: silica dust is not just a nuisance; it is a real risk to your lungs!
Silica is a natural mineral present in large amounts in things like sand, sandstone and granite. It is
also commonly found in many construction materials such as concrete and mortar. The silica is
broken into very fine dust (also known as Respirable Crystalline Silica or RCS) during many
common tasks such as cutting, drilling and grinding
Breathing in very fine particles of crystalline silica can lead to the development of:
Lung cancer
Silicosis
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD))
And breathing in fine particles of wood dust can lead to the development of Asthma
The risk of lung disease is linked to people who regularly breathe construction dust over a period
of time, not on the odd occasion.
To protect the lung, the COSHH Regulations sets a limit on the amount of these dusts that you
can breathe (called a Workplace Exposure Limit or WEL) when averaged over a normal working
day. These limits are not a large amount of dust: when compared to a penny it is tiny – like a small
pinch of salt:
This limit is the legal maximum; the most you can breathe after the right controls have been used.
How to reduce the amount of dust?
1 Reduce the amount of cutting by using the best sizes of building products.
2 Use a less powerful tool e.g. a block cutter instead of angle grinder.
3 Using a different method of work altogether – e.g. using a nail gun to direct fasten cable trays
instead of drilling holes first.
Please always work with approved safety equipment, such as those dust masks that specially
designed to filter out microscopic particles and use the dust extraction facility at all time.
For more information please see the HSE website:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction or http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/cis69.pdf
