NEWSLETTER SPRING 2019

FOR THE INDUSTRY

In This Issue:

Silicosis

New Members

The Workplace

It is important to manage the risk of Silicosis at the worksite

and protect the health of your workers and your business by

understanding and getting valuable advice on: What silica is and what products it features in What the rules are for working with silica How builders and tradies can work safely with products

containing silica What are appropriate cutting tools and PPE What health and air monitoring is, and Where you can get further information and support.

What is Crystalline Silica? Crystalline silica (silica) is found in sand, stone, concrete and mortar. It is also used to make a variety of products including composite stone used to fabricate kitchen and bathroom benchtops, bricks, tiles and some plastics. When workers cut, crush, drill, polish, saw or grind products that contain silica, dust particles are generated that are small enough to lodge deep in the lungs and cause illness or disease including silico-sis. Different types of rock and rock products can contain differ-

ent amounts of silica, for example: Demolition Dust 3 – 4% Shale 22% Clay bricks 15 – 27% Aggregates in concrete 30% Fibre cement bricks 10 – 30% Granite 25-40% Natural sandstone 67% Composite (engineered or manufactured) stone 90%

What can Silica do?

Dust related lung disease occurs when the human body is un-able to break-down or remove certain types of dust once it has entered the lower parts of the lungs. When silica dust lies within the lung tissues, chemical reactions can occur which result in tissue injury followed by the healing response of the lung. This is similar to an injury to the skin, such as a cut, which usually heals leaving a small scar. Dust lodged in the lungs can cause an inflammatory process, scarring in the lungs and reducing the body’s ability to breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. Damage in the lung tissue causes a small scar, in the form of a small nodule which can be seen on a chest x-ray. This type of lung damage is called silicosis.

How much exposure does it take? Development of dust related lung disease depends on a num-ber of factors, such as the amount, how often and for how long a worker is exposed to silica containing dust. Some peo-ple are more susceptible than others to developing disease even though they may have had similar patterns of work-place exposure.

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Types- Simple silicosis The disease may manifest in different ways in individuals, depending on the composition of the dust, duration of expo-sure and individual factors. In the early stages of the disease, small scars called nodules begin to form. A chest X-ray iden-tifies the profusion of these round or irregular nodules to determine the advanced state of the disease. In the early stages, it may be difficult to differentiate small nodules from other lung conditions, or even other normal structures in the lungs such as blood vessels. Typical symptoms include:

There may be no symptoms

Shortness of breath

Chest pain

A cough

Types- Complicated silicosis When the lung nodules or fibrotic masses reach one cm in size the condition is called complicated silicosis. Further progression of disease results in large fibrotic masses in the lungs which can destroy the lungs. Progression to complicat-ed silicosis, also known as progressive massive fibrosis (PMF) may occur in some workers if they remain or have been exposed to high concentrations of respirable dust over a generally long period of time. In PMF, there are large masses of dense scar tissue in the lungs. Workers with PMF will have significantly decreased lung function and the con-dition can be fatal. Typical symptoms include:

Shortness of breath

Chest pain

Chronic cough

Increased sputum

Lung dysfunction

Pulmonary hypertension

Heart complications

What is the treatment? There is no cure for silicosis. When an individual has been diagnosed with silicosis they will generally not be able to work in an environment that further exposes them to dust particles and potentially further compromises their health. Treatment of silicosis requires careful management by your health care team. This may include your GP, respiratory physician, a physio/exercise physiologist, occupational ther-apist, psychologist and other medical and allied health care professionals. The delivery of these services will primarily centre on managing symptoms. Having a healthy lifestyle and exercising regularly is an important component of man-aging this medical condition.

Safe Work Method Statement Following are factors which can be incorporated in the development of SWMS to cover the procedures to ad-dress risks to garage door installers when drilling ce-ment type products thus creating dust that could contain respirable silica.

The risks can occur particularly in the breathing zone when drilling the top holes for the attachment of the guides. These controls may be difficult to implement par-ticularly the fit test however we need to start and ensure safety within the industry

Work Task:

Install brackets and guides to opening

Possible Safety or Environmental Hazards: Exposure to silica dust from drilling into concrete/

brickwork/masonry

Control Measures to Reduce Risk: Silica dust controls:

o Tell others/workers in same area before drilling, that dust may be generated o Use hand held drill/power tool with on-tool extrac-tion with HEPA filter to capture dust o Check hose connections for tool extraction are tight and secure without obvious leaks o Collect dust material to be safely emptied from unit into waste disposal bag o Drill/power tool operator to wear respirator with at least P1 filtration (disposable or reusable) o When wearing a tight-fitting respirator, operator must ensure an effective face seal (either being clean-shaven or having facial hair that doesn’t interfere with the fitting surfaces and the valve of the respirator). o Operator to have respirator fit test at least annually

Welcome to New AGDA Members Wilpac Garage Doors NEW BEITH QLD

No-Trubs Constructions P/L BANGOR NSW

Specialized Garage Doors DUDLEY PARK WA

Cruzin Garage Doors CROYDON VIC

Narrowtex Australia P/L UNDERWOOD QLD

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