Protect Plant Premises and Employee Exposure Against Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) Dust
IAC provides our customers with a 3-Phase series of technology driven solutions to contain harmful Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) airborne dust from worker exposure in plant areas.
Our 3-Phase RCS plan and dust collection technologies are designed to assist plant operators in developing a Corporate Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) dust capture and material handling program to comply with OSHA and MSHA or NIOSH Silica Dust Rules.
Phase 1
- Introduce Management / Ownership to regulatory Permissible Exposures Limit (PEL)
- Site specific engineering evaluation
- Gather employee exposure profiles.
phase 2
- Identify sources of Silica Dust Exposure
- Engineered Solution Controls
- Compliance Plan
- Corporate Policy Governing RCS Controls
phase 3
- Develop and Initiate on-going RCS Dust Control Surveillance Plan and Documentation Archives
Hazardous Fine Particulate Dust Emissions
These emissions are caused by material handling throughout the plant’s raw material production processes, as well as moving and storing silica-based materials
Common Plant-Wide Dust Emission Sources:
- Bulk Storage Tank Loading and Removal
- Belt Conveyors and Bucket Elevators
- Truck and Rail Load-out
- Rail and Truck Unload
- Screening and Chutes Unloading
- Pneumatic Conveying
- Spillage
- Dryers
- Driveways and Heavy Moving Equipment Roadway Traffic
- Wind Blown
Suffice to say, the above dust sources make up about 90% of an average plant’s work area. This dust problem is not localized to select plant production areas, but rather it is all invasive and omnipresent throughout the plant’s worker access areas.
Existing technology typically uses Fabric Filter dust collectors, which when under a fan induces a source of vacuum (suction) which is connected to a schematic of in-plant ductwork and a series of hoods placed over the most likely dusty areas to capture airborne dust emissions at the sources listed above.
The standards for dust control are general and are based around dust laden air capture, dust
containment, and clean air discharge through a fan stack. It’s the clean air after being filtered in the fabric filter dust collector that is measured at the stack discharge for percentage of fine dust particulate removal. This method is fine for non-harmful airborne dust particles, but not so for the carcinogenic Crystalline Silica (RCS) airborne dust particles.
IAC has developed technology that concentrates on absolute continuous capture of dust before it can become airborne and spread out across the facility, exposing workers to harmful repetitious RCS dust inhalation.