Do not sweep silica dust into the air
Silica 5 min 29 CFR 1926.1153
Why it matters
A dry broom and an air hose put silica dust back in the air the crew breathes. Use water or the vacuum on the tool. If the water stops or the vacuum filter is full, stop and tell the foreman. Do not blow the dust off your clothes or off a ledge.
The talk
The grinder is done. The floor is coated with a fine gray film. Someone grabs a broom. Someone else picks up the air hose to blow the dust off their pants and off the sill. The cloud rises to face height and drifts down the hall into a room where other people are working. It looks like cleanup. It is the same dust the control was supposed to keep down, thrown up again. On a demolition floor or a masonry wall, that film is not ordinary dirt. It is silica dust from concrete, brick, or stone.
Do not dry sweep or dry brush where it would put silica dust in the air, unless wet sweeping or a HEPA vacuum is not feasible. Do not use compressed air to blow dust off clothes or surfaces unless a ventilation system captures the dust or no other way works. Those are narrow cases, not the way this crew cleans up. For us the instruction is simple. Do not dry sweep. Do not blow dust off with an air hose. Use water, or use the vacuum on the tool. If you think water or a vacuum will not work in a spot, you do not make up your own exception. You stop and tell the foreman. The foreman decides if there is truly no other way.
Today, set the water or the vacuum before the tool starts, not after the dust is on the floor. If you are cutting or grinding, the control stays on for the whole task. When it is time to clean, do not reach for a dry broom and do not reach for the air hose. Wet the area or use the vacuum. Look at the vacuum filter. If it is full, it is not capturing the dust. Tell the foreman. If the water stops, stop the tool and tell the foreman. Do not keep grinding while someone hunts for a fitting. Do not blow off your shirt or the ledge. Dust on your clothes comes off with water, or by getting out of that layer away from other people, not with a blast of air in the hallway.
Key points
- Do not dry sweep silica dust into the air.
- Do not dry brush it up.
- Do not blow dust off clothes or surfaces with an air hose.
- Use water or the vacuum on the tool.
- If wet sweeping or a vacuum is not feasible, stop and tell the foreman.
- If the water stops, stop the tool and tell the foreman.
- A full vacuum filter is not capturing the dust.
Do this
- Use water on the cut or the vacuum on the tool.
- Clean with water or a HEPA vacuum, not a dry broom.
- Stop the tool if the water stops.
- Tell the foreman when the vacuum filter is full.
- Keep the air hose off dusty clothes and dusty surfaces.
Do not do this
- Do not dry sweep where it puts silica dust in the air.
- Do not dry brush that dust up into the air.
- Do not blow dust off clothes with compressed air.
- Do not blow dust off a sill or a floor with an air hose.
- Do not keep cutting dry while someone looks for a fitting.
Talk about it
- Which tools today use water, and which use a vacuum?
- Where is the air hose, and how do we keep it off the dust?
- Who do we tell if the water stops or the vacuum filter is full?
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Send to the crew
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