Plaster of Paris has its own OES, 10 mg/m3 inhalable dust and 4 mg/m3
respirable dust, but these are both 8-hr averages, and unless someone's job
is mainly removing casts, it is hard to believe that these 8-hr averages
will be reached.
Strictly speaking the limit for other, 'nuisance' dusts, although set at
the above levels, is not an OES, but a trigger above which COSHH
applies. The difference is that if a substance has an OES, like Plaster of
Paris, the regulations require exposure to be kept below that level or
reduced to it as soon as reasonably practicable: it doesn't matter what you
think of the risk. For other dusts, without their own OES, exposure above
that level just requires the risk to be assessed and exposure to be
'adequately controlled'. For a low-hazard material, it might be argued
that control was still adequate even if the exposure was above the levels.
Of course, this is just about inhalation exposure. If there is a skin
effect, that has to be controlled as well.
There is a forthcoming BOHS seminar on 'Current Occupational Health Issues
in the Health Services' which will cover developments in COSHH and the
Physical Agents Directive (and therefore vibration). I will post a notice
about this separately.
Trevor Ogden
At 18:57 17/01/2004, you wrote:
><snip>
>. If there is an OES for nuisance dust, and control measures are in
>place to reduce exposure, then some sort of surveillance will act as a check
>that the control methods are actually effective......
><snip>
> > 1. Dust - If worried you need to arrange environmental monitoring and
> > comply with the OES for nuisance dust.
> > 2. Vibration from the tools used to cut off the plaster.
<snip>
(Dr) Trevor Ogden
Editor in Chief, Annals of Occupational Hygiene
Annals on-line at http://www3.oup.co.uk/annhyg/
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North American Editor:
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