According to The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), at least 2.2 million workers in the U.S. are exposed to silica. Each year, hundreds of workers die from illnesses caused by breathing in silica and thousands more become ill.
Any construction worker who performs one or more of the following tasks with any of the materials listed below is at risk of being exposed to hazardous levels silica dust.
Workers in the following industries are at risk of exposure to respirable silica dust:
- Construction
- Demolition
- Foundries
- Glass making
- Grinding Concrete
- Hydraulic Fracturing
- Mining
- Rock Drilling
- Sand Blasting
- Tuck Pointing
In addition, the activities below generate high levels of respirable silica dust:
- abrasive blasting
- bushhammering
- conveyor operating
- cutting/sawing
- demolishing/disturbing
- drilling
- earthmoving
- grinding
- jackhammering
- milling
- mixing
- pneumatic truck loading and unloading
- polishing
- roofing
- sacking/patching
- sanding
- scabbling
- scarifying
- scraping
- sweeping/cleaning up.