Plant safety at any cost?
Don't get me wrong: it's hard to argue with current moves to streamline health and safety legislation, in line with Lord Young's 'Common Sense, Common Safety' report – especially given that chief among the aims is to reduce the bureaucratic burden on small companies. If that makes the UK a more attractive place for employers to set up plants, resulting in increased employment, more tax revenue, and a stimulated and revitalised economy, that's good news.
Pollution Solution
Whether you look at the heavy engineering manufacturers, pharmaceutical, petro-chemical, or continuous process industries, copious volumes of dust and fumes are generated. These fumes and dusts have to be processed before they can be vented to atmosphere, or disposed of by waste disposal. Similarly, the refurbishment, renewal, upgrade or decontamination of surplus plant and machinery require equally careful handling.
Risks unmasked
There has been a succession of advances in dust and fume control in recent times, resulting from better equipment, improved modelling packages - to ensure that the dust and fumes actually go where they are supposed to go and smart systems that are run only when needed.
Inhaling fumes should not damage your health
A new laboratory in a leading research institute in the UK has just been dedicated to improving the welding working environment and making it safer.
Hidden assassins
Every year, thousands of people in Great Britain develop occupational asthma or die of lung diseases, because of airborne contaminants they inhale at work. Brian Wall reports
Dust and Fume Control: Clearing the Air
Implementing dust and fume control measures is key to providing a safe working environment, with current legislation and best practice extending the scope of control well beyond the factory. Where activity is undertaken that gives rise to hazardous dust and fumes, the definitive requirements for compliance are specified in UK health and safety regulations and a number of EU directives. Across Europe, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work collects, analyses and publishes information - in its Third European Survey on working conditions, it was reported that as many as 22% of employees breathe in vapours, fumes, dust or dangerous substances during one quarter of their working time. Some areas of Europe are worse than others, but everywhere it seems apprentices and blue-collar workers are significantly more exposed than others.
Dusting off better control practices
It is one thing to extract and trap dust and fumes, but quite another to do so efficiently and at minimum cost. But that's what we have to do: it is important to minimise energy and consumables usage, as well as complying with health and safety regulations. The problem is that since, at first sight, every application is different, establishing rules for which technologies to use, under what conditions, isn't trivial.
Extracting rewards
Avoiding risk, safeguarding the workforce and complying with health and safety regulations are key goals of dust and fume extraction equipment. But there's also a financial reward to be reaped, reports Brian Wall
Busting the dust
Whether it's fumes from the manufacture or application of paints, solvents, chemicals and rubber, or dust from processes such as sanding, grinding or machining, plant engineers need to be concerned with correctly applied dust and fume control equipment.
Why monitor dust in the workplace?
Airborne particulates in any industrial operation can have serious health effects for workers, making effective monitoring a vital tool, as Mark Venables discovers