The Efficacy of Local Exhaust Ventilation for Controlling Dust Exposures During Concrete Surface Grinding

Croteau, G.; Flanagan, Mary Ellen; Camp, Janice; Seixas, Noah S.

doi:10.1093/annhyg/meh050

Cited by 18 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…LEV, particularly on-tool LEV, has proven effective in respirable dust control in concrete grinding and polishing (Akbar-Khanzadeh and Brillhart 2002; Akbar-Khanzadeh et al 2007; Akbar-Khanzadeh et al 2010; Healy et al 2014; Croteau et al 2004; Croteau et al 2002; Echt and Sieber 2002; Flynn and Susi 2003), but the effectiveness of LEV in stone countertop fabrication with or without wet methods is largely uncharacterized. Cooper et al (2015) reported that during engineered stone cutting using a hand-held worm-drive circular saw under controlled conditions, wet cutting with LEV was highly effective, reducing operator exposures by over 90% compared to the usual practice of wet cutting without LEV.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Evaluation of Respirable Dust and Crystalline Silica Controls During Simulated Performance of Stone Countertop Fabrication Tasks With Powered Hand Tools

Johnson

Phillips

et al. 2017

Annals of Work Exposures and Health

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Objectives Workers who fabricate stone countertops using hand tools are at risk of silicosis from overexposure to respirable crystalline silica. This study explored the efficacy of simple engineering controls that can be used for dust suppression during use of hand tools by stone countertop fabricators. Methods Controlled experiments were conducted to measure whether wet methods and on-tool local exhaust ventilation (LEV) reduced respirable dust exposures during use of various powered hand tools on quartz-rich engineered stone. Respirable dust samples collected during edge grinding with a diamond cup wheel and a silicon carbide abrasive wheel were analyzed gravimetrically as well as by x-ray diffraction to determine silica content. A personal optical aerosol monitor was used simultaneously with the respirable dust samples and also for rapid assessment of controls for polishing, blade cutting, and core drilling. Results On-tool LEV and sheet-flow-wetting were effective in reducing exposures, especially when used in combination. Sheet-flow-wetting with LEV reduced geometric mean exposures by as much as 95%. However, typical water-spray-wetting on a grinding cup was less effective when combined with LEV than without LEV. Mean silica content of respirable dust samples from grinding operations was 53%, and respirable mass and silica mass were very highly correlated (r = 0.980). Optical concentration measures were moderately well correlated with gravimetric measures (r = 0.817), but on average the optical measures during a single trial using the factory calibration were only one-fifth the simultaneous gravimetric measures. Conclusions Sheet-flow-wetting combined with on-tool LEV is an effective engineering control for reducing respirable dust exposures during engineered stone edge grinding and blade cutting. On the other hand, addition of LEV to some water-spray-wetted tools may reduce the effectiveness of the wet method.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Evaluation of Respirable Dust and Crystalline Silica Controls During Simulated Performance of Stone Countertop Fabrication Tasks With Powered Hand Tools

Johnson

Phillips

et al. 2017

Annals of Work Exposures and Health

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“…Currently, monitoring is performed either by stationary measurements or by personal monitoring, i.e. equipping some of the workers present on site (Croteau et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pervasive Sensor Network for Real Time Environmental Monitoring in Construction Sites

Carbonari¹,

Naticchia²,

Vaccarini³

et al. 2013

Proceedings of the 30th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction and Mining (ISARC 2013): Building Th

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In order to gain competitiveness and compete at a global level, construction companies should improve their efficiency. The problem is even more relevant in the construction field, whose work processes find it hard to evolve towards new automated methods and techniques in the management field. For that reason, this paper suggests how construction companies could apply new technologies to implement automated management of environmental hazards.Based on a survey regarding the environmental risks presently experienced in construction sites, noise and dust were considered two of the main hazards. So in this paper a networked system for real time remote monitoring of the spatial distribution of dust in construction sites was developed. Such a system would relieve builders from the commitment of on-site surveys, allowing for a continuous monitoring of the site conditions and of the real exposure of each worker and pass-by to the pollutants generated by construction works. The main system requirements considered are: easy to deploy, reliable, as accurate as needed to be able to send real-time warnings and store a good estimation of the real exposure to which involved people have been subject to.So far the research produced a prototypical hardware for dust monitoring made up of wireless sensors which can be easily deployed on site. The sensors were calibrated by means of laboratory tests, where their measurements were compared with those collected by means of highly accurate instruments, which were taken as a reference. Thanks to these experiments, calibration curves for the sensors were worked out, showing also the measurement range of the sensors.

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“…LEV is used in industries in order to help reducing workers' exposure to particles at workstations. The use of LEV resulted in an overall exposure reduction of 92% [1]. Figure 1 shows the common elements of LEV system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental and Simulation Validation Methods of Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) in Training Facilities Building

Seng

Leman

Sadikin

2013

AMM

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LEV is a ventilation system that collects and sucks out particles such as dusts, mists, gases, vapors or fumes out of work station, so that they can’t be breathed in by occupants. There is a lot of LEV allocated and installed in order to help protecting occupants’ health but it doesn’t work properly. To overcome this issue, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) will be implemented. Past studies CFD techniques represent a very significant improvement of air ventilation systems. However, CFD is just a tool in prediction model, which can lead to inaccuracy of predicting airflow due to problems with pre-processing, solver and post-processing with parameter from actual experimental results. As of yet, it is not possible to 100% accurately simulate airflow around a body. These codes are simply models which are close to that of a real flow, but not an exact match. All of these require validation to help minimizing percentage error in CFD methodology. Several strategies are needed to boost effectiveness of LEV in terms of predicting airflow in a geometry model. The outcome of this research can be used as a benchmark or guideline for industries to help improving indoor air quality (IAQ).

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The Efficacy of Local Exhaust Ventilation for Controlling Dust Exposures During Concrete Surface Grinding

Cited by 18 publications

References 13 publications

Experimental Evaluation of Respirable Dust and Crystalline Silica Controls During Simulated Performance of Stone Countertop Fabrication Tasks With Powered Hand Tools

Experimental Evaluation of Respirable Dust and Crystalline Silica Controls During Simulated Performance of Stone Countertop Fabrication Tasks With Powered Hand Tools

Pervasive Sensor Network for Real Time Environmental Monitoring in Construction Sites

Experimental and Simulation Validation Methods of Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) in Training Facilities Building

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