Management of wood dust affects all wood industry businesses.
Health and safety management systems, procedures and control measures required will need to develop to aid compliance with the lowering of workplace exposure limits from 2020.
At present the UK has the following workplace exposure limits (WEL) for wood dust:
-
Softwood – 5mg m³ 8hr TWA
-
Hardwood – 5mg m³ 8hr TWA
From January 2020 this will change for hardwood and mixed dust waste to:
-
Hardwood – 3mg m³ 8hr TWA
-
Mixed wood dust – 3mg m³ 8hr TWA
A further lowering will occur in 2024 to:
-
Hardwood – 2mg m³ 8hr TWA
-
Mixed wood dust – 2mg m³ 8hr TWA
Guidance under; Regulation 10 of The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health states:
Exposure monitoring is necessary if;
-
The risk assessment made under regulation 6(1) shows that an initial exploratory monitoring exercise is necessary to reach an informed and valid judgement about the risks;
-
measurement is required to be sure that a WEL or any self-imposed (in-house) exposure standard is not exceeded.