Industrial Hygiene in Construction

I had posted a few weeks ago about a recent sighting of silica exposures during concrete/asphalt cutting. Then, today, at a stoplight…there it is.

A worker was using a gas powered hot saw (cut off saw) with an abrasive blade to cut a concrete pipe. No respirator.

If you were me, what would you do? (Leave your answer in the comments section)

• call the company main office?
• stop and caution the employee?
• call OSHA?
• take a picture and post it for the world to see (check…ha)
• offer to buy a respirator
• perform air monitoring for them? (for free, of course.?)

Here in the Northwest, rock crushing definately has a season…and that season is now. Road crews are getting set up and now is the time to make sure you get everything is in order…before the MSHA inspector shows up.

Below is my safety punch-list, specific to industrial hygiene:

• Training – I know it’s required for MSHA sites, but double check. Does everyone have it? What about contractors onsite?
• Water controls working & in place? The dust isn’t bad, yet.
• Air monitoring for silica – done it yet? Are you at a new location? New part of the quarry? Better do it again.
• Miner’s hearing checked (audiogram taken?). Anyone with a threshold shift? Make sure you follow up with another test.
• Are the air conditioning units working in the vehicles? – if they’re not= the windows will be down = noise levels WILL be up.
• Noise monitoring (dosimetry) performed 8-hour time weighted averages? If you don’t do it, MSHA will (maybe will be citation too).
• Is your shop done hardfacing the equipment? see my earlier post here.
• Paperwork in order?

Be safe out there!

In  the trainings I perform for employers, I try to explain to them that there IS overexposure to silica on their jobsite. I tell them that if I could be at their site everyday, and be ready to perform air monitoring at a moments notice, I could find overexposures.

Here is an example of a road crew cutting asphalt with a concrete saw. I’m sure it was a small cut (since they were not a concrete cutting subcontractor, and it was a tiny little saw). But the haze you see is the dust plume from the cutting.

I just happened to drive by and be stopped at a red light when this occurred. I know, I probably shouldn’t have touched my phone (while in my car) to take a picture…but I couldn’t resist. And, with that same train of thought, the road construction crew probably thought, “it’s just a small cut and it will only take 5 minutes”. So, neither of us are innocent

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