This document has been developed to provide best practice guidance for businesses operating in the wood waste recycling sector. The guidance addresses the Health and Safety Executives (HSE) recommendations on managing exposure to wood dust and provides a framework of recommended measures for those within the wood waste recycling sector. The HSEs document, Wood dust: Controlling the risks is a useful additional resource to be read in conjunction with this document.
WORKPLACE EXPOSURE LIMITS
Workplace Exposure Limits (WELs) are occupational exposure limits approved by the HSE. They are set to help protect workers health. WELs are concentrations of hazardous substances in the air, averaged over a set period. As an employer, you must protect workers from exposure to hazardous substances, including dust, fumes, chemicals, vapours, mists, nanotechnology, gases, biological agents, and germs that cause disease.
Exposure to a substance is uptake into the body by:
-breathing fumes, dust, gas, or mist
-skin contact
-injection into the skin
-swallowing
The HSE publishes a list of Workplace Exposure Limits in their Guidance Note EH40 2005 which forms part of the requirements of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002 (as amended).
For wood dust, WELs are currently set as follows:
-The WEL for hardwood dust is 3mg/m3 (based on an 8-hour timeweighted average).
-The WEL for softwood dust is 5mg/m3 (based on an 8-hour time-weighted average).
-For mixtures of hardwood and softwood dusts the WEL for hardwood dust of 3mg/m3 applies to all wood dusts present in that mixture.
In addition, where substances have been classified as carcinogens, mutagens or asthmagens, to comply with the COSHH Regulations, exposure must be controlled to as low as is reasonably practicable (ALARP).
A WEL may be considered as a ceiling value that should never be exceeded. ALARP is about getting exposure to as low as possible using control measures in a hierarchal order. Recycling companies should give priority to those controls that contain or minimise the release and spread of wood dust into the workplace. Where there is a residual risk of exposure remaining after those controls have been put in place, then suitable and sufficient PPE, including Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE), must also be worn.
Fuente: Wood Recyclers´Association