An Employers Guide To CoSHH and Wood Dust
This information sheet is just one of a series created by HSE's manufacturing sector on wood dust. It provides guidance for woodworking managers. It demonstrates just what the health and safety risks from wood dust are along with ways in which they can be controlled.
When dealing with local exhaust ventilation (LEV) designers and suppliers, it will also help employers to ask the right questions. Kinds of wood dust In addition to the tiny fragments of wood produced during processing, wood dust can also include. germs and moss and fungal spores.
The quantity and kind of wood dust will depend on the wood being cut and the device you are using:
whether the wood is seasoned or green;
whether it is a hardwood, composite or softwood board;
how aggressive the device cutter or blade profile is.
The most significant threat is from fine dust, as you could breathe this deep into your lungs where it will certainly do the most damage. Fine dust will additionally spread out further from the cutting process so it is essential to clean ledges and various other workroom appears routinely to prevent dust gathering.
Why is it needed to manage wood dust?
Wood dust is a substance harmful to health since it can cause significant non-reversible health. troubles, consisting of:
obstruction in the nose, and rhinitis;
an unusual kind of nasal cancer.
Wood dust is flammable and, in specific situations, could trigger a fire or explosion. Every year, properties are seriously damaged or ruined by wood dust fires that normally start in dust extraction devices. Wood dust explosions in buildings are unusual, except in the chipboard industry.
It additionally makes sense to manage wood dust from a company perspective as you will require less time for clearing up, and there will certainly be less slips and trips risks caused by settled dust.
Just what triggers high wood dust exposures?
The following tasks are likely to produce high dust exposures, some over long periods:
machining operations, especially sawing, routing and turning;
sanding, by device and by hand;
utilizing compressed airlines to blow dust off furniture and other posts (to be stayed clear of) prior to spraying;
hand assembly of machined or sanded elements;
operations involving processing composite boards, eg medium-density fibreboard (MDF);
the bagging of dust from dust removal systems;
house cleaning, especially if sweeping up and using compressed airlines (once again to be avoided).
Exactly what the law says
Because of the prospective health issues, wood dust is covered by the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH). These set out the legal requirements to protect employees from health threats emerging from harmful substances at work. Under COSHH, companies (consisting of contractors) have a duty to perform a suitable and adequate danger assessment and take steps to guarantee they avoid or appropriately manage exposure.
COSHH specifies that, where it is not fairly practicable to avoid exposure to a hazardous. substance, control of that exposure ought to only be treated as sufficient if:
the principles of good practice for the control of exposure are applied.
This is set out in Schedule 2A to the COSHH Regulations and consists of the demand to offer ideal personal safety equipment, such as respiratory safety devices (RPE), combined with your other control measures, such as LEV, if sufficient control could not be accomplished;
any sort of workplace exposure limit (WEL) is not surpassed. Both hardwood and softwood dusts have a WEL of 5 mg/m3. These are limits placed on the amount of dust in the air, averaged over an eight-hour working day;
for a compound that has the possible to trigger cancer or occupational asthma (such as wood dust) exposure is decreased to as reduced a level as is fairly practicable (ALARP).
This implies that, even if your control measures (eg LEV) minimize exposure to below the WEL, but there stay. improvements that could further reduce the exposure, then you should make these improvements if practicable and affordable.
In all cases, companies ought to consult their workers or their representatives when assessing dangers and deciding about control measures. Good interaction and co-operation are vital if control measures are to be accepted and adopted by the workforce.
