Effectively Monitor & Manage Exposure to Dust

Workers can pair their XD1+ with their R-Link watch to view their own dust exposure levels right on their watch face. (photo courtesy Realtec)

Adequately monitoring and managing your workers’ exposure to risk from dangerous dust poses a set of challenges that are unique from other workplace risks. In contrast to noise, for example, which a person will be able to hear if it’s loud enough to potentially harm their hearing, dust isn’t always visible to the naked eye. And dust, unlike some other workplace risks, can remain an active threat to workers even after the activity which creates the dust has ceased.

This is partly because dust particles can remain in the air for a staggering 20 or more days, but also because negative health outcomes resulting from exposure to dust are often felt years after the exposure actually took place. Therefore, even if your team is taking steps to protect workers from potentially dangerous dust, it’s possible that dust might still pose a serious threat to their health and wellbeing.

In this article, we’ll review the current impact of dust-related occupational ill health in the UK and explore how organizations can adopt an approach to dust monitoring and management that meets these unique challenges to better support worker health and safety.

Dust: Invisible & Unpredictable Threat

Aside from the fact that dust is microscopic and all-but-impossible to eliminate entirely from standard workplaces, it’s also uniquely difficult to monitor and manage for other reasons. One of the many challenges teams face when trying to control their workers’ exposure to dust is the reality of how dust can affect different individuals in very different ways.

The harm caused by exposure to dust ranges from skin irritation to cancer, and it’s difficult to determine what dust—or how much—will cause which problems in any one person. This is one key reason why one-size-fits-all approaches to occupational dust monitoring fall short of well and truly protecting your workforce.

Pairing a monitoring device with a smart watch makes it possible for workers to respond to easy-access, real-time exposure data. This enables quicker action, should intervention be needed. (photo courtesy Realtec)

Dust Monitoring Tech Enables Action, Insight

Traditionally, teams have relied upon third-party assessments of their risk environment with regard to dust, in order to keep workers safe and protected. And, while such assessments may provide a useful baseline for determining the type and amount of dust in a given workplace during a specific point in time, they do not provide the real-time, accurate information required to understand an individual worker’s actual exposure.

Last year, a safety technology company partnered with Reactec to bring more effective dust monitoring to the UK’s workplaces by designing the lightest weight, most practical personal dust monitoring technology on the market. With no filters, pumps, tubes or replaceable parts, such devices are incredibly compact and easy to use. Workers only need to switch it on and secure it in place, and they’re ready to get to work.

And now, workers can pair this device with their watches to view their own dust exposure levels right on their watch face. Previously, live data was sent to analytics, where supervisors and duty holders could view it in near real-time and make immediate interventions when necessary. This latest update enables even quicker action, making it possible for workers to respond more immediately to real-time exposure data which they can access at any moment.

Individual workers’ exposure data can be stored and analyzed in a secure, powerful analytics platform, which transforms information from the field into actionable intelligence that organizations can use to drive better, more informed decision-making.

And, since data can be overlaid with any other exposure data—such as vibration, noise or dangerous proximity—you’ll have an unprecedented 360-degree view of your workplace risk environment. With this level of insight, you can identify patterns, trends and hotspots, as well as the ability to take action to adjust ways of working or refine controls.

Monitoring your workers’ exposure to potentially harmful dust particles presents unique challenges that traditional approaches to risk management simply could not adequately address.

Modern solutions are purpose-built to provide you with invaluable insight that can help keep your workers safe and protected, all while facilitating a seamless user experience that’s designed to make adoption fast and easy. IHW

To learn more visit: https://www.reactec.com/products/dust-monitoring/

Last year, Trolex partnered with Reactec to bring more effective dust monitoring to the UK’s workplaces. The Trolex XD1+ is designed to be the lightest weight, most practical personal dust monitoring technology on the market. (photo courtesy Realtec)