Construction Dust: The Slow Killer on Site

The Hazard You Cannot See Settling

Falls kill construction workers quickly and visibly. Dust kills them slowly and invisibly, years or decades after the exposure, through diseases including silicosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, occupational asthma and lung cancer. The most dangerous fraction is the part you cannot see: respirable particles fine enough to reach deep into the lungs and stay there.

Three dusts dominate the risk on site:

• Respirable crystalline silica (RCS): released when cutting, grinding, drilling or breaking concrete, mortar, brick, stone and engineered stone. The workplace exposure limit is tiny, 0.1 mg/m3 over eight hours, an amount that would barely dust a penny.
• Wood dust: from sawing and sanding; hardwood dust in particular can cause a rare nasal cancer, and both hardwood and softwood dusts cause asthma.
• General construction dust: plasterboard, insulation and mixed demolition dusts, less potent but far from harmless in quantity.

All of them fall under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, which means assessment and control at source are legal requirements.

Control at Source Beats Masks Every Time

Design the dust out

The best exposure is the one that never happens. Order blocks and slabs cut to size off-site, use block splitters instead of cut-off saws where the finish allows, choose direct fixing methods that avoid drilling, and plan chasing work so one pass with the right tool replaces improvisation with a grinder.

Suppress or capture what remains

• Water suppression: cut-off saws with a constant water feed knock down the visible plume and, more importantly, the invisible respirable fraction. The water must flow for the whole cut, which means checking bottles are filled and connected, not just present.
• On-tool extraction: grinders, sanders and drills connected to an M-class (or better) extraction unit capture dust at the point it is created. Ordinary domestic vacuums are not adequate and clog quickly.
• Good housekeeping: vacuum rather than sweep, and never use compressed air to clean down. Dry sweeping simply relaunches the hazard into the air at breathing height.

Then, and only then, RPE

Even with good controls, many dusty tasks still need respiratory protective equipment as a final layer. For most construction dust work that means at least an FFP3 disposable respirator or a half mask with P3 filters. Two things make or break RPE:

• Fit. Tight-fitting respirators must be face fit tested for each individual wearer, and the wearer must be clean-shaven where the seal meets the face. Stubble breaks the seal and quietly cancels the protection.
• Wear time. A mask pulled down for a chat or a phone call loses much of its daily protection. Comfort, correct sizing and understanding why all drive real wear time.

How we can help Face-Fit Testing Talk to a chartered consultant based in Leicestershire. Free, no-obligation advice. Find out more

Health Surveillance Closes the Loop

Where workers are regularly exposed to silica or wood dust despite controls, health surveillance, typically questionnaires and lung function testing through an occupational health provider, is required. It will not protect an individual by itself, but it catches early disease and tells you whether your controls are genuinely working.

Getting It Right on Your Sites

Dust control is a habit chain: the right method, the right tool with water or extraction, the right mask fitted to the right face. Break any link and the exposure happens anyway. Integral Safety supports contractors with COSHH and dust risk assessments through our consultancy service, accredited face fit testing for your RPE wearers, and COSHH Awareness training. Contact us to get ahead of the dust.