Benchmark control of dust from flour and flour improvers in in-store supermarket bakeries

Control benchmark framework – what EHOs should expect to see in in-store bakeries.

To:Health and Safety Enforcing Authorities

For the attention of:Local Authority Health and Safety Enforcement Managers, Health and Safety Regulators and others

This circular gives advice to local authority enforcement officers

The supermarket has in place a suitable and sufficient health and safety policy with links to COSHH assessments, procedures on health surveillance etc.
Personal responsibilities for managing health and safety are clearly defined.

Bakery workers are given information about how flour dust/bakery ingredient dust may cause asthma, the symptoms the dust can cause and what to do if they experience any of these symptoms.
Pre-task information, instruction and training in safe working practices; key messages e.g. ‘Ten top tips’. (See ‘A Baker’s Dozen – Thirteen essentials for health and safety in bakeries’).

A suitable and sufficient COSHH risk assessment for flour dust and flour improvers is in place.

Control measures should be appropriate to the activity and consistent with the risk assessment and must be considered and applied in accordance with the hierarchy of controls in Regulation 7 of COSHH.
Good working practices to reduce exposure to dust e.g. working carefully, starting up mixers at a slow speed, using dredgers or sprinklers to spread dusting flour etc.
Good practice for cleaning – wet cleaning, plumbed-in vacuum or other suitable commercial vacuum cleaner with at least two filters in series. Guidance on selection of vacuum cleaners for use in bakeries.
Where dust extraction is fitted, it should be checked to see that it is working every day, checked for damage every week and thoroughly inspected and tested at least every 14 months.
Where tight-fitting RPE is worn, face-fit testing should have been done. The RPE should be suitable for the individual wearer. RPE should only be used as a last line of protection to control exposure.

The Workplace Exposure Limit (WEL) for flour dust is 10mg/m-3 and there is a requirement under the COSHH Regulations to control to as low as reasonably practicable below this limit. By complying with good control practice, exposures can be reduced to around 2mg/m-3, based on an 8 hour time-weighted average. In many cases behavioural change and engineering controls will be needed to achieve values around this figure and for some particularly dusty activities RPE may also be necessary. It is important to note that 2mg/m-3 is an indicative but in most cases achievable value and that there is still a risk of asthma below this level. It should not be regarded as an additional legally-binding exposure limit.
A recent draft recommendation from the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits concluded that there would be only a low risk of developing respiratory symptoms, including asthma, with exposures to inhalable flour dust in the region of 0.5 - 1mg/m-3. Above this exposure range, there is an increasing risk of these effects.

Machinery and control measures regularly serviced in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.

Pre-employment screening could include a questionnaire about present or past asthma or chest illness. The COSHH Regulations require at least annual health surveillance for asthma, with referral for specialist advice when necessary. There should be a named occupational heath professional or company with responsibility for managing the process.
Arrangements are in place for re-deploying employees with respiratory sensitisation away from the bakery.

Procedures are in place locally to ensure control measures are being applied, and nationally to ensure consistent compliance with standards across all stores.

A Baker’s Dozen – Thirteen essentials for health and safety in bakeries (HSG233). ISBN 0-7176-2616-4
Health & Safety in Bakeries Liaison Committee (HSBLC) booklet – Guidance on Dust Control and Health Surveillance in Bakeries, available from the Federation of Bakers, 6 Catherine Street, London WC2B 5JW (Tel. 020 7420 7190).
COSHH Essentials guidance sheets in FL series and sheet G402: Health surveillance for occupational asthma. Available from the COSHH essentials web site.