Dust Suppression toolbox talk from IQ

The Institute of Quarrying has produced the slide set you can see above, which acts as a toolbox talk. It acts as an overview of the differing ways in which effective dust suppression can be achieved safely and with an environmentally friendly approach to suit differing applications.



You can also view it alone with our own set of Toolbox Talks over on the Demolition Training website.

London Mayor produces Control of Dust and Emissions supplement

The Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority have worked together to produce a new 113-page guidance document entitled The Control of Dust and Emissions During Construction and Demolition - Supplementary Planning Guidance.

You can download it from the NFDC website in PDF form.

Boris Johnson explains in the introduction that the main goal of the document is to continue to improve air quality across London with an "ambitious package of measures." Anyone carrying out construction or demolition work within London will need to understand and adhere to the measures outlined in this guidance.

Source: NFDC

Just how risky is construction dust? The IOSH and CITB reveal all

The IOSH and CITB have jointly released a new survey covering the risks of on-site dust and how to control them.

The key findings of the survey are as follows:

- a lack of priority given to this issue by companies
- poor awareness of the risks among workers
- little attempt to design out dust risks
- a poor understanding and use of on-tool extraction
- an over-reliance on respiratory protective equipment as the main form of control
- a lack of awareness about face-fit testing
- inadequate management arrangements to control dust
- poor worker compliance with the arrangements that are in place
- a lack of worker consultation

The 52-page survey entitled "Construction dust" is available to download and read from the CITB website.

Envirocare has also written an excellent article summarising the survey and the controlling of risks on a day-to-day basis. It's well worth your time to read.

Site Shield 360: the all-in-one dust and noise monitor

Working on a demolition or construction site, two things that always need to be monitored and kept under control are dust and noise. That's difficult to do without dedicated equipment being available, but gadgets are becoming available to make the task easier.

One we've heard about recently is the Site Shield 360 from European Attachments Group. It carries out boundary and site monitoring, feeding back information on dust, noise, wind speed, and direction simultaneously. That means you have a record of what has been produced throughout a working day. If preset limits are exceeded, alarms and emails can be sounded and sent.

We also like the fact this is a product manufactured in the UK and allows access to the data using nothing more complex than a web browser on your PC.

For more information visit the European Attachments Group website.

The Institute of Air Quality Management publish new guidance on the assessment of dust from demolition

The IAQM new guidance on assessment of dust from demolition has now been published and it is an excellent document that we recommend you purchase asap.

You will be able to recognise the document on the shelf as it has a great photograph of Armac group plant on the cover.

You can check out the guidance over on the IAQM website.