Whether your residential, commercial, or industrial project requires cost-effective Brisbane floor and road sawing, awareness of potential on-site hazards can significantly improve the health and safety of the workers. Cutting concrete, masonry, asphalt, stone, and cement can produce silica dust, compromising physical and mental wellness and derailing your project timeline.
As trusted Brisbane hand and ring sawing experts with a proven track record of facilitating numerous projects nationwide since 2003, we understand the importance of construction and industrial safety. This blog will explain the basics of silica dust and the preventive measures you can take to ensure a safe, seamless project and your workers’ long-term health and well-being.
What Is Silica Dust?
Silica is one of the most abundant minerals produced by the earth’s crust. Silica materials include glass, beach sand, silicone, and granite.
This mineral comes into two forms: crystalline and non-crystalline. Quartz, the most common form of crystalline silica, is present in rock, sand, gravel, clay, and granite. Workers cutting or sawing bricks, tiles, and concrete expose themselves to respirable crystalline silica (RCS), which can compromise respiratory function and lung health.
On the other hand, non-crystalline silica is present in glass, silicon carbide, and silicone. This silica version is less toxic to the lungs.
Workers cutting, demolishing, grinding, and drilling commercial and residential structures with crystalline silica compromise their long-term health and well-being. The size of the airborne silica dust particles indicates the risk level. Larger particles like beach sand aren’t life-threatening because workers can’t inhale them. Conversely, they can inhale smaller ones and risk long-term lung function.
Risky Construction Activities That Produce Silica Dust
Workers assigned to construction, demolition, mining, quarrying, tunnelling, and stonemasonry jobs risk silica dust exposure. Knowing work activities that can harm workers’ health allows project managers to implement critical intervention measures to save numerous lives.
The following is just some of the work activities that produce silica dust:
- Drilling holes
- Mining
- Tunnelling
- Construction work
- Dry cutting brick or concrete
- Sandblasting
- Concrete or stone angle grinding
- Jackhammering
And many more.
What Are The Common Silica Dust Health Hazards?
Inhaling silica dust, specifically crystalline silica from rock, sand, gravel, clay, and granite, can lead to serious health risks, including the following:
Silicosis
This is a disabling, irreversible, and sometimes fatal, respiratory ailment. Crystalline silica causes the lungs to develop hard nodules and scarring around the inhaled particles. The nodules become larger over time, impeding oxygen intake and causing possible death. Silicosis has no cure, so taking preventive measures is critical when working on projects that produce silica dust.
Silicosis progresses gradually over time. It develops after fifteen to twenty years of occupational crystalline silica exposure. Symptoms may not be apparent. However, an individual may experience shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain, and respiratory failure.
Lung cancer
Studies have shown that crystalline silica exposure increases lung cancer risk. In this scenario, abnormal cells grow and develop into tumours which hinder lung function. If left untreated, the cancer can metastasise or spread to other body parts. Many instances are incurable.
Recognising the symptoms of lung cancer is crucial. They include persistent cough, coughing up blood, chest pain, shortness of breath, voice hoarseness, weight loss, fatigue, wheezing, and facial swelling. If any of your workers experience any of these symptoms, it’s important to seek emergency medical attention.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
This respiratory ailment includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Individuals with COPD experience shortness of breath because of difficulty obtaining adequate oxygen. Unfortunately, COPD isn’t typically reversible and may worsen over time.
Kidney disease
Surprisingly, workers exposed to crystalline silica are also at risk of renal disease. Some contractors who experienced high silica exposure from abrasive blasters at their work sites developed kidney failure.
Silica dust triggers the release of inflammatory chemicals (cytokines) that affect other organs, including the kidneys. This mineral can also trigger autoimmune diseases that deteriorate kidney tissue, including lupus and scleroderma.
Long-term silica dust exposure can lead to chronic inflammation, which scars renal tissue and causes chronic kidney disease (CKD). Common symptoms of CKD include fatigue, mental fog, poor appetite, urinary changes, and swelling in the legs, ankles, feet, or hands.
Preventive Measures For Workplace Silica Dust Exposure
Safe Work Australia (SWA) sets the workplace exposure standard for respirable crystalline silica at 0.05 mg/m3 (eight-hour time-weighted average). PCBUs (Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking) must minimise respirable crystalline silica exposure to safeguard workers’ health and well-being.
As a company committed to safety, we strongly recommend that project managers implement the following protective measures:
Respiratory protection
A respirator is personal protective equipment (PPE) that filters harmful respirable crystalline silica (RCS) from the air. This strategy helps workers and PCBUs adhere to WHS requirements, including the SWA RCS standard.
Wet-cutting methods
This strategy significantly reduces airborne silica particles in industrial and construction settings.
Water sprays moisten the materials before cutting or grinding them. On the other hand, slurry management requires combining water with fine particles to form a wet mixture, minimising dust and ensuring a cleaner working environment.
Ventilation
A local exhaust or vacuum tool system filters airborne silica dust before it enters workers’ respiratory passages.
Please ensure you set up the ventilation system according to the manufacturer’s specifications for optimum results.
Air monitoring strategies
Air quality monitoring significantly minimises harmful silica dust and ensures compliance with stringent Australian safety standards.
Real-time monitoring equipment provides project managers with actual silica air levels. If the levels exceed the prescribed 0.05 mg/m3 RCS level, they can act appropriately.
Employer Silica Dust Management Responsibilities
Safe Work Australia (SWA) requires employers to meet the prescribed respirable crystalline silica (RCS) level, ensuring it’s as low as possible to ensure optimal worker health and well-being. Potential risks and excess RCS levels require air monitoring to minimise health hazards and guarantee a smooth project timeline.
SWA also mandates PCBUs to implement health monitoring programs for workers carrying out projects with RCS, including the following:
- Gathering personal, health, and work background information.
- Obtaining records of personal exposure.
- Issuing standardised respiratory questionnaires.
- Conducting standardised respiratory function tests.
- Taking full PA view X-rays for baseline and high-risk workers.
As Australia’s trusted concrete sawing and drilling experts, we strongly encourage employers to implement training programs that raise crystalline silica safety awareness. This proactive strategy provides PCBUs and workers with long-term peace of mind and reassurance, knowing they can work efficiently without worrying about their health and well-being.
Conclusion
Silica dust is a byproduct of numerous projects that require concrete, masonry, asphalt, stone, and cement cutting. Airborne respirable crystalline silica (RCS) is a serious health risk nationwide in multiple industrial and construction settings.
For this reason, project managers and PCBUs must raise awareness of silica dust health hazards and implement preventive measures to ensure long-term health and well-being, including respiratory protection, wet-cutting techniques, ventilation, and frequent air monitoring.
Safeguarding workers’ health improves long-term job satisfaction and ensures seamless project timelines. Help eliminate the dangers of silica dust at your workplace, through the use of a Gold Coast commercial cleaning company that specialises in industrial and construction site cleaning.