Dust Monitoring and Measurement

GAVIN MOREIRA, Member Services Manager from the CMPA provides an extract from the new “Dust Management Guideline”.

Objective of Workplace Dust Monitoring
The primary objective of personal dust monitoring is to identify a worker’s exposure to dust so that controls can be established to either eliminate or reduce the exposure.

Personal dust monitoring is also utilised to identify, improvements, deteriorating trends and review and address controls.

The objective of static dust monitoring is to identify sources and volumes of dust being generated and released into the workplace or alternatively to assess the effectiveness of controls once those controls have been established, e.g., before and after.

It must be noted that the results of static dust monitoring do not necessarily reflect a worker’s exposure to that dust as the worker may not spend any or little time in the area where the static dust monitoring was conducted. For that reason, static dust monitoring is not often utilised.

Planning Dust Monitoring
Planning of dust monitoring should be conducted by a qualified Occupational Hygienist in consultation with the responsible manager and worker representative.

The Occupational Hygienist should have proven experience in dust monitoring of quarries and hold AIOH Professional Grade membership.
CMPA has associate members who are Occupational Hygienists and undertake dust monitoring.
The selection of workers who shall be monitored shall be based on their potential exposure; this may be inclusive of long term contractors.

When scheduling a date for dust monitoring the following should be considered:
• The advice of the Occupational Hygienist;
• Weather conditions should be as reasonably representative as possible and not extreme, e.g., high rainfall, overly humid, stronger than normal winds, higher than normal temperatures; and
• Operating conditions, e.g., normal production outputs (tonnes per hour), typical crusher runs; not shut down days for maintenance unless planned to specifically monitor maintenance workers.

The responsible manager should ensure on the day of monitoring:
• All existing dust controls are in place and operating as they normally do;
• Workers and contractors have been informed of the monitoring program and have been briefed as to their role in the program;
• Workers and contractors keep a record of their activities throughout the day to help identify any activities that may have resulted in high level exposure; and
• The Occupational Hygienist is fully inducted to the site and introduced to relevant workers.

The following factors can potentially influence the monitoring result and the worker’s level of exposure:
• Ambient condition, for example wet or dry, temperature, relative humidity, air movement, wind;
• Work location and worker activity;
• Operating conditions, e.g., abnormal occurrences, dust spill;
• Influence of nearby activities e.g., rock breaker, grading haul road;
• Influence of neighbour’s activities, e.g., construction, demolition, materials processing;

• Dust suppression and control equipment being operational or not; and
• Breakdowns and blockages.

Please contact the CMPA if you require a copy of the guideline
03 5781 0655 or check the website https://cmpavic.asn.au/

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