ASBESTOS & HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES
THE CON WORKPL ARE OFT COMPAR IMPACT O
CLEARING THE AIR
Sally Clayton, Product and Procurement Manager for PPE at Arco talks to Tomorrow’s Health and Safety about the growing number of reported construction dust related illnesses and how the industry can help to protect its over two million strong workforce from the risks of exposure.
Every year, thousands of workers are affected by working in dusty environments and breathing in airborne construction dust particles, with serious and irreversible implications for their health. Recently released figures from the HSE for 2013/14 highlight a growing number of reported lung diseases and respiratory illnesses caused by the inhalation of construction dust particles such as respirable crystalline silica, wood and demolition dust. This included an estimated 252 new lung disease cases reported by chest physicians in 2013, compared with an average of 170 per year over the previous 10 years. A significant rise in new cases of silicosis was also reported, raising concern across the industry about workers’ long term health.
The prosecution of Stonyhurst College by the HSE in May 2014
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for failure to protect one of its stonemasons from exposure to silica dust is a telling illustration of the need for effective enforcement before it’s too late. Employed to maintain the college’s 200-year- old buildings for almost 12 years, the stonemason in question worked intensively with powered hand tools cutting, shaping, chiselling and finishing sandstone as part of his job. The HSE found that measures to monitor or reduce the worker’s exposure to silica dust were not taken by the college and no equipment was used to remove, capture or supress the dust created by this work. In 2011 he was diagnosed with silicosis and, following an investigation, Stonyhurst College was found negligible for exposing him to over 80 times the workplace exposure limit of silica dust.
THE LONG VIEW Although construction dust poses a significant risk, with the potential to cause serious long term damage to a person’s health, many construction workers are unaware or ill- informed of its effect on the body. This is partly because many of the symptoms and health conditions that develop as a result of exposure to construction dust may take several years to develop. As a result, the consequences of potentially harmful workplace exposure levels are often dismissed or underestimated in comparison to the immediate impact of injuries in the workplace. Often, by the time consideration is given to past exposure it is too late to reverse or halt the effects.
The most common illnesses linked to breathing construction dust into the lungs include silicosis, lung cancers,
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