Dusts produced from sanding and grinding applications are common and can be found in most industrial workspace environments. Left unchecked, these pollutants can expose a worker to a variety of well documented pulmonary illnesses.
Many health risks are associated with welding gases and fumes, and are primarily determined by:
Sanding and grinding dusts can often spread to every corner of a workspace with ease. There are several methods for managing this hazard, but the most effective is capture-at-source. Collecting dust before it reaches a worker’s breathing zone prevents the worker from being exposed and helps to prevent the contamination of costly machinery and sensitive electronic equipment that may also be present in the workspace.
Most sanding and grinding applications should take advantage of capture-at-source ventilation, and only when impractical should ambient air cleaning solutions be considered.
There is more to effective ventilation than equipment selection. Cartridge dust collectors and downdraft tables only work if:
Your dust collection equipment, filtration type, and supplementary personal protection equipment will depend on the type of materials you are working on and dozens of work-situation variables.
Evaluate your work situation critically. Ask yourself: