Dust Monitoring

Many work activities can create dust. These include but are not limited to:

• Weighing loose powders
• Filling bags or emptying them into skips/containers
• Cutting (e.g., paving stones)
• Crushing and grading
• Clearing up spillages

Dust is classed as a substance that is hazardous to health under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) (2002).

The definition of a substance hazardous to health includes dust of any kind present at a concentration in air greater than 10mg/m3 (as a time-weighted average over 8-hours) of total inhalable dust. The limit for respirable dust is 4mg/m3 (as a time-weighted average over 8-hours).

The COSHH Regulations require employers to assess the risk to their employees and prevent or adequately control employees’ exposure to these substances.

Employers should make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to health from the dust(s) concerned and the steps that need to be taken to meet the requirements and should provide employees and other people on premises with suitable and sufficient information, instruction, and training.

Prevention of exposure to dust should be an employer’s first objective, as many forms of dust can be eliminated from the workplace.

Where it is not reasonably practicable to prevent exposure to dust, a combination of engineering and process controls may be appropriate, but ensuring you’re using the right combination is crucial.

Methods for controlling dust include: 

• Segregating or enclosing the dusty processes to reduce the number of people exposed
• Providing extraction where total enclosure is not possible
• Damping down materials where the process permits it
• Minimising the height that material is allowed to fall
• Encouraging workers to work with care and instructing them how to control the dust produced by their activities

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), which is inclusive of protective clothing and respiratory protective equipment (RPE), may be provided for welfare purposes, but its use as part of your organisations’ strategy for controlling exposure should only be considered when all other reasonably practicable measures have been taken.