Air Quality & Dust Management on Construction Sites

Construction dust can seriously damage your health

The 3 Types of Construction Dust

Construction dust is a general term

Used to describe different dusts you may find on a construction site. There are three main types:

• Silica dust – created when working on silica containing materials like concrete, mortar and sandstone (also known as respirable crystalline silica or RCS);

• Wood dust – created when working on softwood, hardwood and wood based products like MDF and plywood;



• Other ‘general’ dust – created when working on other materials containing very little or no silica. The most common include gypsum (eg in plasterboard), limestone, marble and dolomite.

The Law

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) cover activities which may expose workers to construction dust.  For all construction sites,a Dust Management Scheme needs to be in place at the very start of the project.  This would include an implemented action plan.  This will give the site full control of an dust issues created during the complete project works.  This will give the site full control of any dust issues created during the complete project works.  It will allow for the contamination of the dust emissions from the site and create a heathier work place for all.  Importantly it will ensure you are compliant with the legislation

Three key things you need to do:

• Assess (the risks)

• Control (the risks)

• Review (the controls

Assess the risks

You are obliged to assess the risks linked to the work and materials. High dust levels are caused by one or more of the following:

• Task – the more energy the work involves, the bigger the risk. High-energy tools like cut-off saws, grinders and grit blasters produce a lot of dust in a very short time;

• Work area – the more enclosed a space, the more the dust will build up. However, do not assume that dust levels will be low when working outside with high-energy tools

• Time – the longer the work takes the more dust there will be

• Frequency – regularly doing the same work day after day increases the risks
  

Control the Dust

We are all beginning to understand the importance of breathing good quality air for our own health, the people around us and the environment.

The HSE reported that there were around 39,000 individuals suffering breathing and lung problems in the UK and there are around 8,000 deaths per year as a result of occupational cancer. (2020)

Dust control is a legal requirement within the UK – the government run Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have made dust a primary focus, giving out fines of up to £2000 plus where inefficient, the wrong or no dust extraction is being used.

The Dust Management Scheme is the first step for a construction site to control the potential dust that is created with its site activities. It is a requirement for local planning and Health & Safety compliance with the scheme needing to be bespoke for each individual site circumstances.

The scheme should include: -

A site attendance to understand the site and activities.

 Take into account the time of year and weather conditions.

 Take into account the neighbours, neighbourhoods, site perimeters and any sensitive situations.

 Take into account the site access and adjoining roads.

 Understand all the site activities.

 List each of the sites dust tasks.

 Set out control measures for each of the tasks identified.

 Provide solutions to control each individual dust emission source.

 Set out the task Risk Factors and management controls.

Provide corrective actions with solution recommendations.

 Provide a site action plan.

 Provide solutions for each dust emission source.

 Provide a site Dust Management Folder for site update and Health & safety and Local Authority inspection

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