Evaluation of Misting Controls To Reduce Respirable Silica Exposure for Brick Cutting

Details

• Personal Author:
  Beamer, Bryan R. ; Maynard A ; Shulman S ; Watkins D ; Williams D
• Description:
  It is estimated that more than 1.7 million workers in the United States are potentially exposed to respirable crystalline silica, with a large percentage having been exposed to silica concentrations higher than the limits set by current standards and regulations. The purpose of this study is to characterize the use of water-misting engineering controls to reduce exposure to respirable crystalline silica for construction workers engaged in the task of brick cutting. Since data concerning the efficacy of engineering controls collected at worksites is often confounded by factors such as wind, worker skill level, the experiments were conducted in a laboratory environment. A completely enclosed testing chamber housed the brick-cutting saw. Respirable dust concentrations were measured using the Model 3321 Aerodynamic Particle Sizer. Specifically, the laboratory experiment was designed to compare dust suppression through water misting using conventional freely flowing water techniques. Brass atomizing nozzles with three flow rates were used for making this comparison: low (5.0 ml s-1 or 4.8 gal h-1), medium (9.0 ml s-1 or 8.6 gal h-1) and high (18 ml s-1 or 17.3 gal h-1). The flow rate for freely flowing water, using manufacturer-supplied equipment, was 50 ml s-1 (48 gal h-1). The experiment consisted of five replications of five samples each (low-misting, medium-misting, high-misting, freely flowing water and no control). The order of sampling within each replicate was randomized. Estimates of dust reduction showed that low-misting nozzles reduced the respirable mass fraction of dust by about 63%, medium-misting nozzles by about 67%, high-misting nozzles by about 79% and freely flowing water by about 93%. Based on these results, it may be feasible to use misting to control respirable silica dust instead of freely flowing water. This strategy is of practical interest to the construction industry which must frequently limit the amount of water used on construction sites. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Construction Industry
  • Dust
  • Engineering
  • Laboratories
  • Occupational Health
  • Particulate Matter
  • Safety
  • Silicon Dioxide
• Keywords:
  • Silica-dusts
  • Respirable-dust
  • Construction
  • Dust-control
  • Masons
  • Engineering-controls
  • Cutting-tools
  • Laboratory-testing
  • Dust-particles
  • Dust-suppression
  More +
• ISSN:
  0003-4878
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5 ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DART - Division of Applied Research and Technology
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  49
• Issue:
  6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20027909
• Citation:
  Ann Occup Hyg 2005 Aug; 49(6):503-510
• Contact Point Address:
  Bryan R. Beamer, University of Wisconsin-Stout, PO Box 790, Menomonie, WI 54751
• Email:
  beamerb@uwstout.edu
• CAS Registry Number:
  • Quartz (SiO2) (CAS RN 14808-60-7)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• NORA Priority Area:
  Research Tools and Approaches: Control Technology and Personal Protective Equipment
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Annals of Occupational Hygiene
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/189665/cdc_189665_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 277.13 KB]
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8ae6272e2517045cd173ef9d19a3433edc29708b84eaff83fca93c5c449e4d4d5a48e6d3069265ab1dcf1d5be20745563843b9fb1373897de27528f36b70f80b