RR1192: Industrial Cleaning: Exposure to Dust Hazardous to Health
A significant burden of occupational respiratory disease in Great Britain is caused by exposure to dusts which are hazardous to health. It is common in a number of industries such as woodworking, stone working, and waste and recycling, for the workplace to become heavily contaminated with dusty material emitted from the process. Employers are responsible for taking effective measures to control exposure and protect health. The priority is to control the exposure at source. Failure to do so results in the need for regular cleaning which can cause very significant worker exposure.
This report describes research to better understand the contribution that industrial cleaning activities make to overall exposure to dusts, which are hazardous to health (excluding asbestos), in the manufacturing, construction and waste and recycling industries.
Internal intelligence was ‘mined’ from HSE’s library of in-house occupational hygiene reports which describe site visits conducted for inspections or research from the late 1990s onwards.
The work concludes that there is potential to significantly reduce dust exposures in several common industries by more widespread adoption of good practice for cleaning dust from production areas.
This report and the work it describes were funded by the Health and Safety Executive. Its contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect HSE policy.
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