Silica dust is the new asbestos.
But what if it’s not? What if there’s really nothing new about silica dust in relation to asbestos?
The link between the two is even closer than you may think…
Most people know asbestos as the dangerous insulator used in construction, responsible for over 5,000 related disease-deaths per year, typically lung cancer and asbestosis.
However, in its natural form, asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral.
Put simply, silicate minerals make up asbestos fibres.
Asbestos is actually just one of the many different forms of silicate materials, in the same way that silica dust is.
The similarities between silica dust and asbestos are much closer than people are aware of.
There is a different attitude towards asbestos compared to silica dust.
The dangers of exposure to asbestos are well documented.
Exposure to asbestos can cause serious lung conditions, including asbestosis and mesothelioma. It is the number 1 cause of recorded work-related deaths in the world.
Most people in the UK are aware of its dangers, particularly as asbestos was banned in 1999 for construction work in the UK.
Yet despite all of this, very few people are aware of how dangerous exposure to silica dust is, despite the fact that asbestos fibres are made up of silicate materials, in the same way silica is.
There are many more dangers relating to silica dust than people may be aware of.
Imagine you are working on refurbishing your bathroom and from the grinding of the ceramic sink and a load of dust becomes airborne.
If you were told that this airborne dust which you were inevitably inhaling was asbestos, you’d probably run a mile, right?
And who could blame you? A dust which is responsible for approximately 90,000 asbestos-related diseases per year. You’d want to get as far away from it as possible.
Well, it’s likely that that dust in your bathroom would in fact be silica dust.
A dust which is made up of silicate materials in the same way asbestos fibres are. A respirable dust which is just as lethal, if not more lethal, in comparison to asbestos dust.
But because it isn’t known to people as being the same as asbestos, the dangers seem to be less of a concern to people.
It’s time to get real and become aware of just how dangerous silica dust is.
It is reported that, in crystalline form, respirable crystalline silica (RCS) is responsible for the death of 600 people per year in Great Britain with 450 of those to workers in construction industry. What’s more, an estimated 50,000 workers are exposed to silica dust globally.
The importance of the dangers of silica dust must be realised, especially with what is known about how dangerous asbestos is.
Asbestos is just as lethal as silica dust. The dangers are the same, yet we cannot afford for the results of exposure to silica dust to be the same as what occurred with asbestos.
Silica could be as lethal as asbestos, if not more so, with equally serious consequences.
Being aware of the issue is the start, action must be taken to protect workers from this dangerous dust.
We cannot afford to let history repeat itself.
As any responsible employer knows – a clear threat to the health and welfare of your staff demands a clear response.
In industries such as construction, mining, tunnelling and manufacturing, the obvious risks to health posed by clouds of workplace dust can be tackled in new and different ways. Some precautions and protections include:
With more awareness of the dangers of dust inhalation, these protections become more effective as they are applied more extensively across different scenarios and environments.
However, dust monitors and other other equipment are only part of the story.
More dangerous than the dust you can see, is the dust you can’t see.
Dust can reach beyond the frontline workers benefiting from protection to threaten support and ancillary staff nearby.
An unfortunate consequence of focusing efforts solely on frontline workers is there are other members of the team who aren’t monitored and protected. Plant and equipment operators working in enclosed cabins, for example, might assume they’re safe but, with microscopic airborne hazards so hard to detect, they’re still exposed to serious amounts of risk.
This is one of the main reasons for the introduction of a new international standard for a consistent approach to designing, testing, operating, and maintaining the air-quality systems of operator enclosures – ISO 23875.
A standard that recognises and responds to the extent of the dangers caused by dust right across a working environment.
It’s a move that’s been welcomed across the board, with the Australian Mining Safety Journal and Mining Review Africa writing, ‘the new standard is likely to place a greater emphasis on the air quality inside the cabin than previously addressed.’
A recent ISO workshop run by Jeff Moredock, Lead at the ISO Working Group, advertised that the new cabin air standard will ‘Improve operator alertness, create a safer work environment and increase productivity.’
Of course, the big question is how do you properly assess the air quality in your cabin? How can you enforce a new and improved standard if you’re not able to accurately record particulate levels in real time?
This makes the introduction of new, wearable or in-cab, real-time dust monitoring technology, such as the XD ONE Portable Dust Monitor, so timely.
The XD ONE is low cost, lightweight, easy to use, easy to maintain and 5 times more accurate than other devices. It continually measures every particle from as small as 0.38 to 40 μm. By issuing every operator an XD ONE, they’re constantly reading the air quality in their immediate environment and instantly alerted to any danger.
In the past, dust monitors were large, clunky pieces of technology that needed to be placed in an area you expected to be hazardous. This was time consuming and took multiple workers to place, set-up and maintain and was inaccurate and often not in real time.
As this equipment has developed, it can now be worn by workers to monitor the dust particles in the space directly around their airways.
The XD ONE Portable Dust Monitor also delivers results in real-time, making it an important part of any safety system or process. Dust can be released at any point and isn’t always noticeable. It can also travel long distances on very slight air currents, so the more warning employees have, the better they can react.
With new regulations pushing for better safety measures and standards in hazardous workplaces and environments, you need to stay on top of everything. Your workers will also benefit, and this keeps them working for longer.
Get in touch today for more details on how the XD ONE Portable Dust Monitor can help you align with ISO Standard 23875 as well as protect workers across your whole site from the danger of microscopic airborne dust.
