Best Practices

Protecting The UK’s Workforce from Silica Dust Exposure and Its Dangers

HSE considers silica dust exposure to be the biggest risk to construction worker health after asbestos.

What is Silica?

Respirable Crystalline Silica, (also known as RCS) is a naturally occurring substance. When materials such as stone, granite, rock, concrete, slate or tile is cut, drilled, sanded, grinded or polished, it creates large quantities of respirable crystalline silica dust particles. Materials with some of the highest silica content include:

Sandstone (over 70%)
Slate (20-40%)
Concrete/Mortar (25-70%)

What’s The Risk?

Silica dust particles are 100 times smaller than a grain of beach sand, meaning they are not visible to the human eye. Due to its size, once inhaled, particles are easily lodged deep into the lungs without the person being aware.

Extensive or regular silica dust exposure can cause lung cancer, silicosis, COPD, and other serious respiratory diseases. For example, in 2024, the UK reported its first case of a worker diagnosed with silicosis, which was linked to the cutting of artificial stone without proper safety measures installed at the workplace.

It is important to be aware of the causes of silica related diseases so that proactive measures can be taken to eliminate or severely reduce the risk.

Silica Dust Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK, with more than 49,000 cases reported every year – that’s more than 130 every day. (2017-2019, Lung cancer statistics | Cancer Research UK)

Lung cancer is often diagnosed later in life, with 4 out of 10 people diagnosed with lung cancer in the UK being over 75. (Lung cancer - NHS)

Extensive exposure to silica dust is associated with causing lung cancer. Silica dust has a workplace exposure limit (WEL) of 0.1 mg/m3, calculated over an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA). It's crucial to minimise exposure as much as reasonably possible, and definitely keep it below the WEL. Failure to comply could result in heavy fines and prosecution. To put this exposure limit into perspective, please see the image below.

HSE silica dust penny comparison — *Breathing in the amount of silica dust shown in this picture each day means you have exceeded the exposure limit of 0.1 mg/m3.*

If you are unable to remove the need for cutting materials containing high silica content from site, or replace the material with something less harmful, then it is important to implement suitable engineering controls to reduce dust exposure. Please remember that RPE/PPE can be used as an additional control measure, but it should not be the only control in place to protect workers.

Employers Responsibility

Employers have a legal duty of care to protect workers from hazards like Silica dust.

Under The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH), employers must:

Carry out a risk assessment.
Consider substituting materials for another that does not contain silica or may have a lower silica content.
Implement adequate control measures that are effective and suitable for controlling silica dust exposure.
Review these controls, ensuring they are still working correctly and effectively to protect from silica dust, and any other dust particles.

Specialist Control Solutions From RVT

RVT Group’s 3C’s® is a proven methodology that ensures effective control and protection from dust hazards on site.

Capture, Contain, Control

Capture the hazard - Position the dust extraction hood as close as possible to the dust creating activity to ensure the dust is captured at the source.
Contain the hazard - The immediate work area should be contained as much as possible to prevent dust migrating and affecting other workers on site or people nearby.
Control the hazard - Negative pressure can be applied to prevent dust migration outside of the work area to protect those nearby.

DUSTEX® Temporary Hire Dust Control Solutions

Our Dust control solutions are trusted to support various projects within Industry, Defence, Infrastructure and Construction. We tailor our products to suit your challenges, always ensuring we understand the full scope of your activities before we install a fully compliant and suitable hazard control solution.

Suitable Silica Dust Control Solutions

Dustex Raptor in use on various projects

The DUSTEX® Raptor is a self-contained and portable dust filtration unit, designed to capture and filter silica dust.

Key features include:

Self-contained and portable, making it easy to move around site as work progresses.
Adjustable airflow between 340 – 1000 m3/hr, and 3-stage HEPA filtration.
The capture hood enables dust to be extracted close to the source, preventing it from spreading and becoming airborne.

The DUSTEX® Dustmaster® Pro has been designed to virtually eliminate dust migration and is a great solution for extracting silica dust. Key features include:

Powerful airflow performance of 2500 m3/ph which allows the unit to quickly capture dust as it is created.
It can be used with H13 & H14 HEPA filters, removing up to 99.99% of harmful particles.
An audible warning sounds when filters are full and need changing.
600mm capture hood makes it easy to capture dust at the source.

Discuss Your Project with Us

At RVT, we don’t just provide solutions – we deliver assurance. We are passionate about protecting people, and the environment from project hazards. With many projects within our portfolio supporting small and large scale projects.