Silica Dust Toolbox Talk
The dust that damages your lungs is the dust you cannot see. The visible cloud settles. The part that matters stays in the air for hours and goes to the bottom of your lungs.
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The talk, read this out
Everybody who is cutting, grinding, drilling or chasing concrete, block, brick, stone or tile today, put your hand up. This talk is for you, and for everybody standing near you.
Silica is in concrete, block, brick, mortar, stone, tile and some engineered countertops. Cutting or grinding any of it breaks it into particles small enough to reach the deepest part of the lung, where the body cannot clear them.
What they cause is silicosis, which is permanent scarring of the lung, plus lung cancer, kidney disease and COPD. It is not an allergy and it does not wear off. The damage accumulates over years and the symptoms show up long after the exposure that caused them.
The permissible exposure limit is fifty micrograms per cubic meter of air as an eight hour average, with an action level of twenty five. Those numbers are tiny. A few minutes of dry cutting concrete indoors can put a person over the eight hour limit before lunch.
You do not have to do the math, because the standard gives you Table 1. For each common task, cutting with a saw, drilling, grinding, chipping, it lists the control. Almost always that control is water on the blade or a vacuum on the tool with a HEPA filter, and for some tasks a respirator on top of that. Follow the row for your task and you are compliant without air sampling.
Water is the simplest control on the site. A saw with integrated water, a hose on the cut, wet cutting masonry. It costs nothing and it removes most of the dust at source, which is the only place worth removing it.
And never dry sweep or use compressed air to clean up silica dust. That takes settled dust that was out of the air and puts it all back, at head height, for everybody. HEPA vacuum or wet methods, every time.
Point at these before anybody starts
A talk delivered in a trailer is a meeting. Stand where the work is and put a hand on each of these.
- Every task today that cuts, grinds, drills or breaks concrete, block, brick, stone or tile
- The water feed or the vacuum shroud on each of those tools, and whether it works
- The HEPA vacuum, its filter and its bag
- Respirators, if the task row requires one, and whether the wearer is fit tested and clean shaven
- The cleanup method: wet or HEPA vacuum, never a broom or an air hose
- Who else is working downwind of the dust, including other trades
The rules that apply
- Follow the Table 1 control for your task: water, a HEPA vacuum shroud, or both, plus respiratory protection where the row calls for it.
- The permissible exposure limit is 50 micrograms per cubic meter over 8 hours, with an action level of 25.
- Never dry sweep and never use compressed air to clean silica dust unless no other method works and ventilation controls it.
- Indoors or in an enclosed area, the controls matter more, not less, because the dust has nowhere to go.
- Respirators need a fit test, medical evaluation and a clean shaven seal. Stubble breaks the seal.
- Keep other trades out of the dust zone while the work is running, or shift the work to when they are gone.
Ask the crew
Three questions, answered out loud by name. This is the part that tells you whether anybody was listening.
- Who is cutting masonry today, and is the water or vacuum working on that tool right now?
- How are we cleaning up at the end of the day, and is there a broom involved?
- Who else will be in this space while the cutting is happening?
Close with this
Water on it or a vacuum on it, every cut. No brooms, no air hoses. The dust you cannot see is the dust that stays.
A talk nobody signed for is a talk that, as far as anybody can later prove, never happened. Use the free toolbox meeting sign in sheet in PDF, Word or Excel, or print the PDF above, which already has the signature lines on it.
Questions people ask
What is Table 1 in the silica standard?
A list of common construction tasks with the specified exposure control method for each one. If you follow the row for your task fully, including any respirator the row requires, you do not have to do air monitoring or an exposure assessment.
Does a dust mask protect against silica?
A loose nuisance dust mask does not. The minimum for tasks that require respiratory protection is a NIOSH approved N95 or better, fit tested, with a medical evaluation and a clean shaven face seal, and some tasks require more than an N95.
Is silica dust a problem outdoors?
Yes. Outdoor cutting still produces exposures above the limit, particularly with a gas powered cutoff saw and particularly for the operator. The outdoor rows in Table 1 exist for exactly that reason.
More toolbox talks
TOOLBOX TALK: SILICA DUST
Attendance
Everybody who was present signs, including subcontractors and anybody visiting the site.