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Safety Net Journal Issue 10 |
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Flour dust in in-store bakeries (Bakers asthma)
HSE has been working with the employers, LACORS (the coordinating body for local authority regulatory activities) and Usdaw to develop a benchmark for control of dust from flour and flour improvers in supermarket bakeries.
The 'supermarket enforcement benchmark' is for use by Local Authority Inspectors to improve good practice and ensure that the appropriate control measures are in place.
The link between exposure to flour dust and asthma is well understood and means that exposure must be reduced as low as possible. The benchmark explains the employer's duties:
- to inform and train about the risk of asthma
- to have suitable control measures to reduce dust including procedures for starting up mixers, use of dredgers, etc.
- to have appropriate measures and equipment for cleaning
- to monitor dust extraction where fitted
- to make sure that any respiratory protection provided fits the worker and is effective.
The guide notes that the workplace exposure level for flour dust is 10 mg per cubic metre but explains that good control practice should be able to keep dust levels below 2 mg per cubic metre in bakeries. Even at these levels however health surveillance is needed to detect workers who become sensitised to flour dust.
For a copy of the guide go to
http://www.hse.gov.uk/fit3street/fdbenchmark.htm
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