NIOSH publishes guidelines for reducing crystalline-silica exposure in asphalt work

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the U.S. has recently released a 79-page e-booklet, Best Practice Engineering Control Guidelines to Control Worker Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica during Asphalt Pavement Milling. These guidelines are the result of more than a decade of collaborative research by the Silica/Asphalt Milling Machine Partnership, which is made up of government organizations, unions and industry members from NIOSH and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to numerous paving contractors and the Laborers International Union of North America. The booklet includes a guide to dust control on milling machines, top recommendations for how to operate and maintain dust-control systems, the health effects of respirable crystalline silica and occupational-exposure limits. Appendices include a daily dust-control checklist and an explanation of the statistical methods used. Best Practice Engineering Control Guidelines is available to download for free at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2015-105/pdfs/2015-105.pdf.

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