Airborne Dust Containment – Power Blowers, Ventilation

– For both Interior & Exterior Environments –

HD, Powerful Industrial Power Blowers for Moving Volumes of Airborne Dust & Debris

Portable, Low Amp Draw 16″ & 24″ Power Blowers – with Variable Speed CFM Setting

Versatile Attachments

Assortment of Attachments for Handling the Most Demanding of Conditions

Complete with High Efficiency Filtration Containment

Greatly Improve Safety, Ventilation & Overall Job Site Cleanliness

Especially when operating in confided areas . . .

Product Applications:

• Masonry & Concrete Sawing & Grinding
• Mortar Mixing
• Containment & Landscaping Projects
• Job Site Filtration
• Economical Dust Collection
• Abrasive Blasting

OSHA’s Silica Dust Exposure Law – Are You In Compliance?

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

The Dust Director? has been used and has figured prominently in just about every silica dust control study since its inception in 2001.

This includes the Dust Director’s acknowledgement in OSHA’s Final Rule: Requirement of dust control to keep workers from breathing silica dust – Effective 23 June 2016.

ITS NOT JUST DUST

OSHA’s Silica Dust Exposure Law.

Final Ruling to Protect Workers from Silica Dust Exposure. It is NOW the Law. Are you in compliance?

Silica Dust Rule in PDF Format.

Rule requires engineering controls (tools and equipment) to keep workers from breathing silica dust.

What is Respirable Silica Dust? These tiny particles (known as “respirable” particles) can penetrate deep into workers’ lungs and cause silicosis, an incurable and sometimes fatal lung disease. Crystalline silica exposure puts workers at risk for developing lung cancer and other possible debilitating respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary and kidney disease.

How Much Respirable Silica Dust is Safe to Breath? OSHA has issued their Final Rule to curb these respirable and kidney diseases in America’s work force by limiting a worker’s exposure to respirable crystalline silica to 50 micrograms per cubic over an 8-hour shift.

What Does 50 Micrograms of Respirable Silica Dust Look Like? A good example may be one of those small paper packets of sugar or artificial sweeteners found in restaurants.

When used to demonstrate the dust concentration inside a building, the size of a football field (100 yards x 53 yards x 14′ high). The weight of one of those little packets is 53 micrograms, which is slightly over the PEL (permissible exposure limit) for Silica Dust of 50 micrograms.

Such a fine dispersing of dust at this concentration would essentially be invisibility. It is also enough to put the workers at risk by contaminating the work area — the size of a football field x 14′ high.

OSHA’s Respirable Silica Dust Law – Effective: 23 June 2016. Since 1999, the Dust Director? has been involved with various organizations aimed at improving the health and safety on construction sites. On a meeting, dated 23 April 2014, the Dust Director? was invited to participate in a discussion about OSHA’s upcoming Silia Dust Standard. Besides the representatives from OSHA, the following organizations were also present:

• NIOSH
• CPWR (Center for Construction Research and Training)
• Various university research scientists and professors
• Health and environmentalist
• Mike Kassman, National Safety Coordinator for the International Masonry Institute (IMI)
• Jerry Scarano, Vice President of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craft Workers (BAC).

In past meetings, by the use of various air testing meters, NIOSH determined that the Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) of a worker being exposed to silica dust should not be greater than 93.4. [On record, NIOSH tested the Dust Director? System (dust control guard and vacuum), and determined the complete system “provided the greatest reduction of capturing silica dust at 94% than any other vacuum and dust guard that was tested.]

Currently, to simplify the understanding and importance of containing silica dust exposure, OSHA and all parties involved, have adopted the buzz phase of “visible dust,” as their measurement of whether silica exposure is being sufficiently contained for both the workers and public.

CASE STUDY: Dust Left to Fly from a Skyscraper

An interesting case study was provided by a Detroit contractor who was tuck pointing at a high rise office building in downtown Detroit, 35 floors above the sidewalks. A summarization of his findings on silica dust exposure is as follows:

• Two workers were tuck pointing an office building, 35 floors up, without the use of dust control
• The thinking was, to leave the silica fly and let it disburse into the sky . . . that it wouldn’t harm anyone or anything
• As the safety coordinator for the company, he monitored the air quality of his workers
• His air quality readings were as follows:
  • Employee “A” was working in air quality that measured 85 times over the NIOSH established PEL
  • Employee “B”, working downstream from employee “A”, was receiving a concentrated dose of dust as his air quality measured 135 times over the PEL!

While this case study shows how “visible dust” may be seen, more importantly was the moral obligation we need to take for our construction workers, the public, and the environment.