Dust Risk Assessment and Dust Management

In December 2021, the Government published significant changes to the Building Regulations and associated Approved Documents, in a bid to help the UK deliver net-zero by 2050.

Importantly, the new guidance includes standards on minimising the ingress of external pollutants as well as the proper installation of ventilation systems.

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted that ventilation is a vital component for all buildings, as such, there is now a requirement for monitoring indoor air quality (IAQ) in all new-build offices and specifically within ‘high risk’ occupiable rooms, where there is a risk of airborne infection.

Monitoring may be achieved using Non-Dispersive Infrared (NDIR) mains powered CO2 monitors, or by ‘other means of measuring indoor air quality’. The document fails to expand upon the ‘other means’, so presumably, it’s up to the designer to put forward a robust feasible monitoring solution, looking at other key IAQ parameters in addition to CO2.

However, small spaces up to 125m3 volume or 50m2 floor area, and large spaces over 800m3 or 320m2 floor space are exempt from monitoring requirements. CO2 monitoring is best suited to high occupant density spaces where the indoor concentration is usually noticeably above background, and individual variations in CO2 emission have less influence on the measured data.

It is suggested that in areas classed as small spaces, CO2 concentrations may be influenced by occupant variability, making results less reliable. In areas classed as large spaces, it is suggested that the air is not fully mixed and CO2 monitors may be less representative.

It is a bigger global killer than smoking.

• It costs the UK economy over £20 billion a year.

• More than 3,500 builders die each year from cancers related to their work.

• 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.

• Health & Safety Inspectors initiative to check & investigate businesses.

• Thousands of ill-health and working days lost due to dust.

• Around 100 times as many workers die from diseases caused or made worse by their work than are killed in construction accidents.

• Legal requirements in the UK – the government run Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have made dust a primary focus, giving out fines of up to £2000 where inefficient, the wrong or no dust extraction is being used.

• Minimum of a Class M dust extraction system required in commercial and industrial.

• Last year, tiny particles of sand, wood and asbestos contributed to 12,000 deaths from lung disease in the UK, according to the Health and Safety Executive.

• HSE will carry out excess of 1000 visits each year

• HSE’s inspectors across Great Britain will be targeting construction firms to check that their health standards are up to scratch during inspection initiative, starting on Monday 4 October 2021.

• This year inspections will focus on respiratory risks and occupational lung disease, looking at the control measures businesses have in place to protect their workers’ lungs from construction dust including silica, asbestos and wood dust.

• HSE’s chief inspector of construction, Sarah Jardine, said: “Around 100 times as many workers die from diseases caused or made worse by their work than are actually killed in construction accidents.

  Dangers of Dust in the Workplace and How To Handle It (safetyrisk.net)

  https://www.hvds.co.uk/5-things-workplace-dust/

  https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/eh44.pdf

  https://www.protrade.co.uk/blog/dust-extraction-classes-explained/