Silica Dust and how it affects your health

Dry sandblasting, grinding, cutting, sanding, polishing, and drilling of silica-containing materials like concrete, rock, glass, asphalt, cement, and engineered stone are considered hazardous tasks in construction. This is because you create silica dust that is too small to settle. The dust floats around undetected in the air that you and those around you can breathe in.

Am I protected if I’m wearing a respirator?

The tiny silica dust particles can penetrate your respirator if you aren’t careful. Make sure your respirator has been fit-tested and isn’t worn over a beard. You must also have the correct filters, as silica dust is 100 times smaller than sand and can penetrate some filters.

Prevention sounds like a better option! What steps can I take?

Step 1: Understand what happens when you inhale silica dust. Thankfully, your lungs have built-in traps that catch most impurities and dust. The nose, windpipe, and air tubes are lined with mucus membranes. Dust that was not sneezed out sticks to the mucus and is coughed out, spat out, or swallowed.

But some respirable crystalline silica (RCS) dust escapes these traps and is tiny enough to enter the lungs, where they cause irritation, inflammation, and scar tissue, even after silica dust exposure is stopped.

Step 2: Know the silica content of your construction materials and substitute for less hazardous materials

The higher the silica content of the material, the more silica dust is created. For instance, engineered stone’s extremely high silica content causes accelerated silicosis.

Stop exposure: the Australian Government is considering banning engineered stone, and New Zealand may follow suit. Why wait for them to ban it? Ban it yourself!

Lessen exposure: substitute high-silica-content materials for no/low-silica-content materials. For instance, substitute engineered stone with wood or natural stone. Examples of the silica content of some of your construction materials:

• Engineered stone: up to 92%

• Fibre-cement sheeting: 5-40%.

• Concrete and slate: 20-40%.

• Granite/natural stone: 25-60%.

• Silica contents of products like cement can be found in their Safety Data Sheets (SDS).

Are there symptoms to look out for?

Damage to the lungs from silica dust and symptoms of disease may not appear for many years. Workers may not show any symptoms, even at the point of initial diagnosis, so prevention and health monitoring is critical. Often workers are diagnosed during routine health monitoring, as chest X-rays may show scar tissue formation even if you are without symptoms. Silicosis symptoms may include a dry cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, fever, chest pain, and unexplained weight loss. Silicosis also increases your risk for other conditions like lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, kidney disease, and some auto-immune diseases.

What if I’m experiencing some of these symptoms?

Tell your doctor about your current or previous exposure to silica dust. Respiratory questionnaires, lung function tests, chest X-rays, and CT scans may be required to rule out silicosis. Health monitoring is necessary because early detection of silicosis before symptoms develop can motivate you to stop further exposure and improve your health outcome.

How do I organise health monitoring?

If you have been exposed to silica dust recently or in the past, even if you wore respirators and have no symptoms, you need routine health monitoring. Talk to your employer. Tell your doctor about your exposure. Engineered stone workers must see specialist occupational health doctors. Early detection is most important!

To further assist your health monitoring efforts, HazardCo has partnered with Habit Health which provides medical checks nationwide. They’re experienced in health monitoring for the construction industry, and their efficient, cost-effective service is discounted for HazardCo members.

Treatment

Treatment is limited to relieving symptoms. For instance, oxygen therapy and bronchodilators will allow you to breathe more easily. Advanced silicosis requires lung transplants.

More information on how to protect yourself from the risk of inhaling silica dust

It’s important to understand that there are very likely specific requirements you need to meet to ensure you are appropriately managing the risks. WorkSafe has plenty of information available to learn more or you can also contact our friendly team of H&S Advisors on 0800 555 339.

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