Thread: BobL's worst nightmare.....adjacent to my back yard....

Getting back to the OP.

Concrete dust as such does not appear on the US National Institutes of Health ROC (cancer list) but Silica does and of course long term exposure to Silica causes silicosis. Lung cancers and silicosis are thought to interact making things worse in the same way that smoking does.

There does not appear to be any recommended OHS levels for air borne concrete dust in Australia but there are recommended levels for Silica.
See http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/...ntaminants.pdf
This is a very useful list and you will be surprised what you will see on there.
The columns to look at are the PPM or the mg/m³ (that's milligrams of contaminant per cubic metre of air)

The levels for silica are 0.1 mg/m³ or 10 times lower than the levels for hardwood sawdust, which is almost certainly too high and wood dust should probably also be 0.1 mg/m³
If the dust can be seen the levels are WAAY over the top. So if you sweep up a bare concrete floor and can see concrete dust then you are being exposed to above the recommended levels

[QUOTE=BobL;1863409] See http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/...ntaminants.pdf
This is a very useful list and you will be surprised what you will see on there. /QUOTE]

Eg
Starch
Cellulose/paper
Titanium Dioxide (paint)
Vegetable oil mists
Sugar
Rosin core solder smoke
The fumes from paraffin wax
Mineral and Gum Turps - note the levels for mineral is LOWER than gum turps

It is my understanding that anyone on a construction site must have a white card or they are simply not allowed to be there, evan an Owner Builder requires one. The requirements is to compete National OHS General Induction Training and is valid in all states.

SB

Originally Posted by BobL

Been there and done all that.

During Uni holidays and on many weekends I worked as a builders labourer on high rise reinforced concrete structures
I worked mainly on stripping out - disassembling form work and sweeping up - bathed in concrete dust all day long, never saw a mask the whole time I was there.

Trying to make a good impression with the bosses my first efforts with a pneumatic jack hammer were considered promising so I was declared Mr Stuff Up. This meant I had to fix the concrete formwork stuff ups.
For example all the window openings in the then Perth Sheraton Hotel from the 6th to the 14th floor were too small for the already built ally window frames so I got to enlarge the opening all along the top edge by 1" using a 25kg pneumatic jack hammer.

The process was as follows.
Carry one Acrow prop into the room and afix it floor to ceiling about 3m from the window opening.
Carry jack hammer and lengths of air line up to room.
Carry 2 44 gallon drums and a 3m long length of scaffold planking into the room and set up in front of window opening.
Tie 3/4" diameter rope around my waist back to Acrow prop. Same fof the jack hammer.
Down at ground level where all the stuff was going to spill out into I had to place 2 witches hats and a sign saying "Danger falling concrete"
Start diesel powered compress and tie wet hanky around my face.

Stand on top of plank across the two 44 gallon drums and chip away 1" of concrete from the top of the window opening.
Pray you don't hit any reo, which just about took my shoulder out every time I hit some.,
Pneumatic hammer is operating at about ear level. TOC - TOC - TOC - TOC dust flying everywhere
Occasionally the hammer tip would break through the concrete and the whole jack hammer would go sailing out the window - restrained from going too far by the rope and the hose.
Meanwhile down below there was a constant rain of blue metal and concrete.
Once the rope broke but the hose held it
Fortunately I never went out the window.
No Muffs, no mask, but I did have a Helmet and steel caps.
Repeat for all windows from the 6th to the 14th floor.
Lots of walking up and down stairs, teasing, bullying, stories. I learned a lot from the form work carpenters. Hardly fine woodworking but lots of basic skills. Those guys (mainly Italians) were fast. Learned a lot about laying concrete, etc.

At the end of each day I was knackered, deaf and I looked like one of those mud men from New Guinea. from the mix of sweat and concrete dust.

There are heaps of other stories I could relate about the conditions.
Some people despise Unions but this sort of thing was an example that no-one should have been expected to tolerate..

And, you survived. See, Darwinian selection really is acting all around us and often despite us.

Originally Posted by Superbunny

It is my understanding that anyone on a construction site must have a white card or they are simply not allowed to be there, evan an Owner Builder requires one. The requirements is to compete National OHS General Induction Training and is valid in all states.

SB

Very true SB, and ear muffs/dust mask is just about the first thing you learn in a White Card course as you would expect).


I was down on site this morning (because i have my White Card) and managed to get some pics of the action, but my puta software won't let me upload from the camera for reasons best known to it.

Also managed to score about 4 metres of 6" waterpipe (broken ends, so useless to them). These will go towards the foundations of my shed extension (sink them in a concrete pad and fill with concrete and some reo)