Silicosis Prevention: Tool Box Session

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Silicosis Prevention Tool Box Session
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What is Silica?

• Composes 15 of Earths Crust
• Examples
• Sand, Granite, other Hard rocks
• Quartz, most common
• Crystalline Silica
• has a diagnostic X-ray diffraction pattern

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Silica and Disease

• 250 Worker deaths per year
• (175 deaths/yr from trenching accidents)
• Silicosis
• Tuberculosis
• Heart Disease
• Lung Cancer?
• Suspect Hum. Carcinogen A2 (ACGIH)

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Examples of Silica Exposures in Construction
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Tuckpointing
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Controls for Silica
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Types of Engineering Controls

• 1. Wet Methods
• 2. Ventilated Tools
• 3. Abrasive Blasting Controls
• Alternate Media
• Alternate Processes

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Wet Methods Joint Cutting
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Wet Methods Portable Saw
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Wet Methods Pre-planning
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Wet Methods Block Cutting
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Engineering Control2. Ventilation

• Portable tools with dust exhaust
• Surface Grinders
• Disc Grinders (tuck pointing)
• Crack chaser
• Scarifier
• Descaler
• Power chipping tools
• Retrofit Dust hoods

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Control by Ventilation Slab Cutting
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Control by Ventilation Hand tools
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Control by Ventilation Tuckpointing
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Engineering Controls 3. Substitute Abrasives

• Coal slag (black beauty)
• Steel grit steel shot
• Aluminum oxide
• Sodium Bicarbonate
• (baking soda)
• Dust Suppressed Sand
• Frozen CO2
• Ag. Prod. (walnut shells, corn cobs)

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Silicosis is not a Curable Disease

• Prevention is critical
• Use Safe Work Practices