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Structural Repair
CRA urges industry to control silica dust exposure
The long term health risks associated with exposure to respirable crystalline silica are well established, and yet silica dust is seldom given serious consideration, says Nigel Roper of the Concrete Repair Association
LEGISLATION
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (CoSHH) clearly explains employers’ duties to control exposure to hazardous substances, including dust. The general duties within CoSHH require employers to:
Assess the risk to health from substances hazardous to health
Prevent or control exposure
Use appropriate controls and ensure they are maintained, examined, tested and used correctly
Monitor exposure (to ensure individuals daily exposure remains below the workplace exposure limit of 0.1mg/m3, as set out in EH40-Workplace Exposure Limits)
Carry out health surveillance (where appropriate to protect the health of workers)
Provide information, instruction and training
In cases where elimination is not reasonably practicable, suitable controls may include extraction at source or damping down. These methods are likely to be used in conjunction with suitable respiratory protective equipment (RPE). Individuals will need to be face fit tested when the performance of the RPE relies on a tight fit. When considering controls, collective measures should be favoured over individual ones to protect the entire workforce.
Suitable control may include breaking with extraction
“The industry should take action to educate managers, operatives and clients, and to lobby manufacturers and hire companies to develop engineering controls” he declares.
“It should also educate designers, in developing safe systems of work to eliminate or reduce exposure to silica and to specify and design with safety in mind as is their duty under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM).”
SAFETY INITIATIVES REDUCING THE CREATION OF DUST
Other recommendations include working with clients and designers to find ways to eliminate or greatly reduce the creation of respirable silica dust.
Although progress is slow in convincing designers to eliminate saw-cutting operations when conducting concrete patch repairs, it is important for CDM duty-holders who are appointing Principal Contractors, and Contractors, to ensure that they are assessed on their arrangements for managing, both the safety and the health of their employees, contractors and others who may be affected by their operations.
Employers and designers who create specifications or design work processes need to consider methods of work that will eliminate or greatly reduce the amount of respirable dust created during construction and mainte- nance operations.
Typically this can be achieved by specifying the use of breakers, rather than an angle grinder with a cutting disc when cutting out concrete or using hydrodemolition rather than traditional breaking for larger areas of concrete.
Companies should also identify employees exposed to silica dust and create a regime for statutory health assessment. Baseline assessments should be carried out initially and a programme of annual lung function tests implemented to monitor workers health.
Individuals will need to be face fit tested
The CRA is urging companies involved in concrete repair to improve the safety of employees who may be exposed to dust. CRA member Concrete Repairs Limited (CRL) has been working to develop management systems and engineering controls since early 2008, from which the CRA declares others in the sector can learn.
Dust from drilling can be extracted THE PROBLEM
Silica dust is created when workers drill, grind, polish, cut or break concrete and other materials containing silica, such as bricks, blocks, tiles etc. The dust created is either classified as ‘inhalable’ or ‘respirable’ depending on the particle size. Respirable dust (which is normally invisible to the naked eye) is the most damaging as it enters deep in the respiratory tract causing fibrosis in the gaseous exchange region of the lungs.
As a result, exposure to silica dust can lead to a myriad of diseases, cheifly restrictive or obstructive respiratory conditions such as silicosis, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The Association recommends that companies introduce a procedure to identify the health risks associated with their operations and set out requirements for the creation of assessments and safe systems of work using a hierachical approach. Such a procedure should provide information on managers’ and employees’ duties and offer information, instruction and training.
It should also discuss the importance of maintenance, examination and testing of controls (which may include air monitoring), along with arrangements for ensuring good hygiene and the correct use of personal protective equipment.
Personal dosimetry equipment INVESTIGATING EXPOSURES
In a move to gain a better understanding of the problem, CRL has conducted personal dosimetry studies to quantify each employee’s likely daily exposure to silica dust.
The information collated will be used to create a database of tasks and likely exposures (from the likes of grinding, drilling and breaking) and to monitor the effectiveness of controls to ensure that employees’ exposures remain within safe limits.
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