Lancs Lad
Well-known member
how long till its banned ?
already is in AUS.
already is in AUS.
JD450A
Moderattor🐾
It won't be banned..... Workers are something you talk about protecting, you don't actually need to do it.how long till its banned ?
already is in AUS.
Lancs Lad
Well-known member
Gecko
Well-known member
As of July 2024, manufactured stone containing Crystalline Silica have been banned in Oz (probably NZ too).
Amorphous Silica (glass) is still ok, so the manufacturers have changed their blend and it's business as usual.
My guess is that now there is a demonstrated alternative, everyone one else will follow suit - either because of legislation, or due to the fear of being sued.
Storrsy
Well-known member
What's so bad though Vs just any natural stone. I work alot with granite and the dust from that is not good news either if you breath too much of it in.
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Brendan
Well-known member
Non of the silica is good, whether those worktop companies have good practices in place or not is debatable but unlike the lads dry cutting bricks, blocks and concrete they are doing it for hours on end, day in day day out. There's a lot of companies and people who just don't give a toss and would rather dry cut so can lay a brick or block and then there's just people who don't care about their workforce have seen plenty of people on sites over the years just cutting loads of blocks to the point that every thing around them is covered in layers of dust, the problem is you try to talk to them about distance suppression and masks etc but they just don't care and think your being awkward
Lancs Lad
Well-known member
Still can't get over lads dry cutting with a Stihl saw ....I know it's a faff hooking up a bottle but come on. Does my nut in. Saw some lads doing tarmac the other day
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Brendan
Well-known member
Same, lad last week cut at least half a pack of 7n blocks, dust every where, he wasn't even going to wear a mask, but eventually was given a disposal one. Off he went dust everywhere, then got in the car he came with someone else with and proceeded to fill that with a load of dust while he emptied his socks. It's always the same "but I want them dry so I can lay them today" attitude. Idiots the lot of them. Had an uncle die from asbestosis 20+ years ago and not a nice thing
Storrsy
Well-known member
Surprising how much dust gets inhaled even doing jobs that arent always considered an obvious risk- vibrating or rolling dry 803 is always one I think throws up a lot of dust. Easy to think of it's just one time crack on and do it but all adds up. As I understand it the lungs cope and get reject certain quantities of dust via mucus But I think it's the accumalitive effect of doing that kind of thing everyday that it becomes a problem. Bonfire smoke is another where your burning up brash and effectively spend the day wallowing in a cloud of fine particulate matter- it's not the dust that you can see that's a problem but the much finer stuff that gets deep into the lungs.
Lancs Lad
Well-known member
Chatting to a customer on site today in Devon. HSE been in site and stoped all cutting of timber until they went and got their extractors tested and the lads wear powered respirators!
Storrsy
Well-known member
Won't be able to fart without wearing a respiratory soon.
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Brendan
Well-known member
Similar happened a few years ago in mk, health and safety guy walked in and any dust extractors that weren't m or higher were banned from site
Lancs Lad
Well-known member
There's were M but now with LEV regs need a test every 14months .
It's getting frankly ridiculous
S
Smiffy
Well-known member
Its because health and safety jobs don't actually exist. They have cured all safety problems and now it's just a case of monitoring it. But if they did that they would all loose their jobs as they don't contribute anything, they add no value, they just cost the company money, so they have to keep finding problems to solve. Thats the problem as soon as you monetize an industry is that it will loose site of the aim. Realistically the health and safety industry should be stripped right back now to just auditors. We don't need any advisors, as everything has been advised about, we have one of the lowest rates of workplace injuries in the world. Although we are beaten by Germany who the on the face of it appears more relaxed about a lot of things.
Lancs Lad
Well-known member
A glance at linkedin should tell you all...any post about some flip flops on a roof with no guardrail and there's a circus of chiming in nebosh and iosh initialled twats chirping about how dangerous it is and he will die etc. whove become so programmed to rams they can't think normally.
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Smiffy
Well-known member
It is really worrying how many highly qualified people can't understand that any task can be risk assessed. And if there isn't a government guidance for a task then all you have to do is justify your work methods. And realistically if they did their risk assessments properly they would know that you could get rid of loads of stupid control measures.
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