Toolbox Talk · ~5 minutes

# Silica Dust

The dust from cutting concrete doesn't hurt today. Silicosis shows up twenty years later, incurable, from exposures that each seemed like no big deal at the time.

[Print the sign-in sheet](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools?form=toolbox-talk-sign-in#form-library)
[All toolbox talks](https://bluecraneworks.ca/toolbox-talks.html)

## How to run it

Read it through once, then talk it — don't recite it. Five minutes
at the start of the shift, crew standing where the work happens.
Under O. Reg. 213/91, s. 14(3)–(4), the talk is held by a
supervisor or a competent person the supervisor appoints — and the
sign-in sheet is what proves it happened.

## Talk through these points

- Know where it comes from: cutting, grinding, drilling, or breaking concrete, masonry, and stone releases respirable crystalline silica.

- Wet methods first — water on the blade kills most of the dust at the source.

- Dust collection on the tool where wet isn't practical: shrouds and HEPA vacs, actually attached and actually running.

- The right respirator, fitted, when controls can't do it all — a dust mask from the gas station is not that.

- Don't dry-sweep the aftermath. Sweeping silica dust just airborne-launches it again — vacuum or wet it down.

- Protect the crew around the cut too — dust doesn't respect the ten feet between you and the guy on the saw.

## Ask the crew

- Which of our cutting tasks are still running dry?

- Where's the water feed / HEPA vac, and does the crew actually use it?

- Who has been fit-tested for their respirator?

The answers are the real talk. If a question lands on a live hazard,
write it down and assign it a name and a date.

## Paper it

A talk without a record didn't happen, as far as anyone who asks is
concerned. Print these free:

[Toolbox talk sign-in sheet](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools?form=toolbox-talk-sign-in#form-library)
[Silica dust control plan](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools?form=silica-dust-control-plan#form-library)
[Hearing protection record](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools?form=noise-control-hearing-protection-record#form-library)

## A new talk every week.

The toolbox talks page rotates a featured topic weekly — bookmark it, or grab the talk by email every Monday.

[This week’s talk](https://bluecraneworks.ca/toolbox-talks.html)
[Next: The New Worker's First Week](https://bluecraneworks.ca/toolbox-talks/new-worker-first-week.html)

[Lifting & Material Handling](https://bluecraneworks.ca/toolbox-talks/manual-lifting-materials.html)
[All 126 contractor forms](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools#form-library)

## Next, from Blue Crane

- [**Safe Work Procedure template**Write the procedure this talk refers to](https://bluecraneworks.ca/safe-work-procedure-template.html)

- [**Field Level Hazard Assessment**The form the crew fills in before the work starts](https://bluecraneworks.ca/field-level-hazard-assessment-flha.html)

- [**Document Control Systems**Sign-offs, certs and safety records, provable in under a minute](https://bluecraneworks.ca/solutions/document-control.html)

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Source: https://bluecraneworks.ca/toolbox-talks/silica-dust