STONE MANUFACTURERS UNDERGO XD1+ TRIAL
OVERVIEW
Customer / End User
Burlington Stone
Application
Stone Masonry, Stone Manufacturing
Industry
Quarrying
Country
UK
Product(s) used
TX8061 XD1+
Challenge
British stone manufacturers underwent the XD1+ trial across their workforce and quarrying processes to engage further with their dust control measures. Worker exposure to airborne dust including silica dust was high, so the need for personal dust monitoring can be important across a range of different processes and activities.
Outcome
We provided two XD1+ Personal Dust Monitor devices as part of the XD1+ trial programme across Burlington Stone’s workforce to monitor for dust levels in both breathing zones and high activity areas across the site, to both determine causes of excess dust levels and support with effective dust control.
Company & Application
A manufacturer of prestigious natural stone, Burlington Stone have quarried for over 200 years across the English Lake District. Meeting each individual clients’ needs for roofing slate, flooring, cladding, interiors and landscapes, Burlington Stone extract and craft a diverse range of signature British natural slate and stone products.
We spoke to Health and Safety Manager at Burlington Stone, Peter Walker, to understand how deploying personal dust monitoring impacted processes in stone manufacturing and wider quarrying activities at Burlington Stone.
The Challenge
Across their range of projects, worker exposure to airborne dust including silica dust is high, so the need for personal dust monitoring can be important across a range of different processes and activities.
The XD1+ plan
We provided two XD1+ Personal Dust Monitor devices as part of the XD1+ trial programme across Burlington Stone’s workforce to monitor for dust levels in both breathing zones and high activity areas across the site, to both determine causes of excess dust levels and support with effective dust control.
Being able to monitor in a variety of different locations and compare the differences in results through BreatheMOBILE is one of the main benefits which XD1+ has over similar products on the market.
This ability inevitably means trends in dust levels can be tracked and looked into in relation to what task was being completed in what location.
The XD1+ solution
For Burlington Stone, the capability to both monitor dust levels and see live data not only helped to make health and safety decisions but also increased worker engagement on why these decisions were being made.
The versatility of the unit is absolutely fantastic, as XD1+ allowed us to monitor for two jobs at the same time. In one shed there is an L-shaped work conveyor with 10 people working on it, so we had one device on a worker at one end and another device at the other end, about 40 metres apart, and then monitored the outcome.
They were doing exactly the same task, with the same tools and risk assessment controls, but the difference in readings was shocking.
That was all down to how they wet damp their station down, how hard they hit the slate, how hard they drop the slates down or if they place them gently. The amount of behavioural traits the unit helped us notice was fantastic.”
It was interesting looking into workers doing certain tasks, and BreatheMOBILE is one of the simplest tools I’ve had to use!”
If we saw a spike, we could come back to that time and say, ‘There was a big spike at 10:30 am, what were you doing?’ and identify the spikes in relation to what activity was happening at that time.”
What this means moving forward
Deploying real-time personal monitoring isn’t just a short-term solution. It gives the workforce reasons to engage with their own health and safety protocols.
“It wasn’t intrusive on our staff and meant there was still freedom for them when working!
The guys themselves who aren’t normally involved in health and safety were really interested.
Once we were stood next to them with BreatheMOBILE on the phone showing them the graphs, they bought in instantly.
Suddenly, we got people hitting things with hammers and waiting to see the graphs change, because they could understand which tasks were causing the spike.”
