FEATURE FOCUS: HEALTH & SAFETY Protecting your workforce from hazardous dust The total cost of harmful exposure in our


workplaces is hard to tally because of the numerous ways it manifests. It is reasonable to assume there are losses from reduced productivity, sick pay, employee turnover, lost expertise, and re-training. Occasionally there are costs from bad publicity, litigation and HSE fines. Damage is also suffered through the tax system. Dust is also a significant component in


by Paul Riddick, co-founder and technical director, VODEX T


he interior decorator, Mario Buatta once said: “Dust is a protective


coating for fine furniture”, but unfortunately dust is rarely so benign. In both homes and workplaces, in the country as much as the city, dust damages human health, the environment, property and valuable machinery. Our efforts to remove it lift it into the air, while our cleaning products infuse chemicals into the cocktail that composes it.


WHAT IS DUST? While dust in our homes consists largely of particles of human skin, hair and clothing, it also contains unpredictable traces of chemicals derived from production processes, traffic exhausts, washing powders, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, furniture, insecticides, sawdust, metallic alloys, asbestos, abrasive grit, insect faeces, animal dander, fungal spores, viruses and bacteria. In our offices, printers, computers,


artificial lighting and paper dust add their own subtle contributions. On the roads, vehicle exhausts constantly generate toxic particulates. On high streets, deceptively normal places such as nail bars, hairdressers, dry cleaners, chiropodists and dentists generate an array of air pollution hazards. Even on factory floors, dust risks are


often underestimated. A relatively harmless material such as iron will produce an array of peculiar chemical side-products during fettling, grinding, drilling and welding operations (hence the flu-like ‘welders fever’). All dust is hazardous dust.


1 MAY 2019 | FACTORY EQUIPMENT 4


DAMAGE TO HEALTH Links between pollutants and cancer, diabetes, sexual dysfunction and mental impairment are constantly being discovered. The sheer complexity of the dust generated by an industrialised society imposes a pressure on human immune systems they haven't evolved to handle. A Danish study published in 2007 estimated that just over five per cent of people now die in consequence of an auto-immune disease. Asthma (not included in that figure) causes three British deaths daily. A useful definition of hazardous dust is


based on the likelihood of ingesting it. Heavy particles fall rapidly to the ground making inhalation unlikely. Inhalable dust mostly consists of particles from 0.01 to 100 microns across. Inhalable dust easily enters noses, throats and mouths. Particles below 10 microns are invisible,


but they are respirable which means that they are small enough to penetrate further into the body – such as into the tubules of the lungs where they often lodge, posing a long-term hazard. Minute grit particles are sufficient to cause gradual silicosis, but dust can also contain asbestos particles slowly shed by roofing tiles and other historical uses.


DAMAGE TO THE ECONOMY Government statistics report that we lose 26.8 million work days each year because of work-related illness. That’s seven times the number lost through work-related accidents – which receive far more attention. Simple ‘hay-fever’ affects 41 per cent of British people and reduces their productivity by an estimated 26 per cent.


Government statistics report that we lose 26.8 million work days each year because of work- related illness


mechanical wear and breakdown. It shortens the life of everything from office printers to plant machinery, hand tools and fleet vehicles. When dust accumulates in corners, on roof beams, inside machinery, above suspended ceilings or in ducts it becomes a fire hazard. Combustible dust is often composed of materials that are not readily combustible under other circumstances. Similarly, explosions can result when otherwise harmless products such as flour or cement become airborne.


DUST EXTRACTION TECHNOLOGY The range of apparatus needed to mitigate dust and fumes is as diverse as its sources. For example, the Vodex inventory includes equipment tailored for nail parlours as well as laser cutters and multi-axis CNCs. Devices range from tiny units that attach to soldering iron tips up to large ducting systems that filter air for entire production plants. Industrial dust collection systems can


often be combined with industrial fume extraction systems. Fume extraction regulations have been defined in various bodies of legislation such as the Health and Safety at Work Act, COSHH and industry-specific standards including those for welding. While particulates can usually be captured in a disposable or washable filter, safe control of fumes sometimes requires more sophisticated processing or dissipation strategies. Shooing your problem away with a


broom or a fan simply makes the danger harder to contain. A thinly spread toxin risks more people suffering from chronic exposure. Likewise, there is no guarantee that any fume or dust collection technology will work unless it has been professionally designed. Far too many simply collect the hazard from one location and deposit it in another. Because fumes and the most hazardous grades of dust are invisible, you may never see the danger. The days when serious risks could be


Vodex www.vodex.co.uk T: +44 (0) 1489 899 070


ignored have gone. Competently installed extraction systems pay for themselves in improved productivity and a happier, healthier workforce.


/ FACTORYEQUIPMENT


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