Wood dust health hazards and control

Background

Wood dust is considered a hazardous substance that must be controlled under Victorian Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) laws. The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (OHS Act) and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (OHS Regulations) require employers to manage the risks associated with exposure to wood dust.

Inhaling wood dust, as well as contact with the skin and eyes, may cause serious health problems. Airborne wood dust may cause breathing problems and lead to lung diseases such as occupational asthma and nasal cancer.

Risks to employees’ health and safety must be eliminated or reduced, so far as reasonably practicable.

Airborne wood dust can be generated when manufacturing or working with wood products such as:

• furniture
• doors
• housing framework
• architraves
• skirtings and mouldings
• window frames.

Typical woodworking processes that generate dust include:

• sawing
• routing
• turning and sanding (by hand or plant).

Bagging of dust from dust extraction systems, using compressed air to blow dust off articles, and dry sweeping of factory floors, can also generate airborne wood dust.

Wood and wood products in this guidance include:

• natural timbers
• particleboard, sometimes called chipboard
• fibreboard, also known as medium density fibreboard (MDF).

Control the risks

Employers must control the risk associated with exposure to wood dust at a workplace. Use the hierarchy of control to help fulfil your duties with regulation 163 of the OHS Regulations.

Employers must, so far as is reasonably practicable, eliminate the risk associated with exposure to wood dust at their workplace.

If it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate a risk associated with wood dust, the employer must reduce the risk, so far as is reasonably practicable, by:

• substitution — substituting the type of timber that leads to less hazardous wood dust exposure
• isolation — isolating people from the risks
• use of engineering controls, for example, local exhaust ventilation, or
• a combination of any of the above risk control measures.

If the risk of exposure to wood dust remains, these controls must be added:

• administrative controls, for example, housekeeping and work practices
• personal protective equipment, for example, respiratory protective equipment.

More than one control may need to be implemented to control the risk sufficiently.

Eliminate hazards and risks

Eliminating the hazard and the risk it creates is the most effective control measure.

For example, consider:

• eliminating the risk by buying pre-cut or processed wood materials
• outsourcing wood processing to another workplace with adequate controls.

Reduce the risk

Reduce the risk with one or more of the following controls.

Substitution

Use a timber that generates less hazardous wood dust.

Use a work process that reduces the generation of dust. For example, use a plane instead of a sander to shape the wood.

Isolation

Enclose plant to stop wood dust being released into the workplace. Isolate employees in a sealed cabin that separates them from wood processes, to ensure that they are not exposed to wood dust.

Engineering

Provide dust-capturing equipment such as LEV (Figure 1) to all dust generating processes. LEV systems provide an extraction point as close as possible to each dust source to deliver enough air speed to draw dust away before it becomes airborne.

On some plant with a single cutting, grinding or sanding face, there may be several dust sources. These may be thrown, drawn or blown from different parts of the plant. Each dust source should be controlled by the LEV system.

LEV systems may be used on multiple fixed large and small plant connected to a centralised air cleaner and dust collector.

Maintain plant and equipment to ensure that it is in good condition. Inspect LEV systems regularly to ensure they are working efficiently and check for holes and leakages in ductwork.

When using smaller portable tools or plant, use on-tool extraction (Figure 2) — a type of LEV which is fitted directly onto the tool. This extraction system uses a captor hood or shroud on the tool and is connected to a portable dust collector, for example, a vacuum cleaner, with minimum recommendation Dust Class M.

Dust bags are available to attach to portable tools, but these alone do not efficiently capture fine dust.

Most modern wood working plant is designed with dust control. Ensure that dust control is available when purchasing new plant.

Administrative controls

Housekeeping

Simple changes to work practices can minimise the level of wood dust in the workplace.

Use good housekeeping to minimise dust by:

• preventing build-up of dust and wood chips by cleaning or emptying dust collection equipment regularly
• using wet methods for cleaning up such as wet clean up using mops and wipes, damping down before sweeping
• when cleaning, using an industrial vacuum cleaner fitted with a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, minimum recommendation Dust Class M
• implementing a 'clean up as you go' policy.

Note on compressed air

Do not use compressed air to clear workbenches or to blow settled wood dust off surfaces and to blow dust from clothing. This can generate secondary dust exposures by re-suspending dust which can be breathed in and present an eye injury risk.

Using compressed air to clear wood dust from skin or clothing can cause air entering the bloodstream through a skin break or body opening. This can lead to serious health effects and fatality. A HEPA vacuum cleaner can be used instead to remove dust from clothing.

Reduce the chance of dust explosion by keeping ignition sources such as flames and sparks away from where dust is being generated.

Consider if it is reasonably practicable to limit employee exposure to wood dust by reducing the time employees spend doing activities that cause wood dust.

Workers exposed to wood dust should wash their hands and arms before eating or smoking, especially if handling treated wood.

Personal protective equipment

Personal protective equipment should only be used when higher-level controls are insufficient to control the risks, or as a temporary solution until higher-order controls can be implemented.

Provide respiratory protective equipment

It is important to ensure that employees are provided with respirators that offer adequate protection against airborne wood dust. Suitable respiratory protective equipment (RPE) must be worn where higher order dust control measures, implemented as far as reasonably practicable, do not control exposures at or below exposure standards.

The type of respirator used depends upon exposure. Usually, a half-face non-disposable respirator fitted with a P2 filter would be sufficient to help control exposures.

Australian and New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 1715 Selection, use and maintenance of respiratory protective equipment provides comprehensive guidance on how to select the correct type of RPE. When selecting RPE, ensure that the equipment meets an appropriate standard. Look for Australian Standard markings (AS/NZS 1716:2012 Respiratory protective devices) or equivalent on the respirator or its container.

Different respirators protect against different types of contaminants.

RPE that relies on a good facial seal requires that employees be clean shaven to ensure a tight seal and a facial seal check (‘fit check’) must be done each time a respirator is put on. If this type of respirator is provided, quantitative or qualitative fit testing should be done to help ensure that correctly fitted equipment is available for each employee. An alternative is the use of a powered air purifying respirator (PAPR).

Information and training

Employers must provide their employees with any information, instruction, training or supervision that is necessary to enable them to perform their work in a way that is safe and without risks to health. All information and training need to be accessible, and in plain language. Provide translated versions of information and training where necessary.

Train employees to properly use the control measures in place, to keep them safe at work.

Supervise employees to ensure that the control measures are effective.

Monitoring dust exposure

Even when you use the right methods to control wood dust, it might still be hard to keep dust levels low enough to meet exposure standards. This means employees could still be exposed to too much wood dust.

Regulation 165 of the OHS Regulations states “An employer must ensure that an employee is not exposed to an atmospheric concentration of a hazardous substance supplied to or generated at the workplace above the exposure standard (if any) for the substance or any of its ingredients”.

Atmospheric monitoring must be done where it is necessary to determine whether there is a risk to health.

Employers must ensure that atmospheric monitoring is carried out if there is an exposure standard and:

• there is uncertainty, based on reasonable grounds, whether the exposure standard may be exceeded, or
• where it is necessary to determine if there is a risk to health.

Safe Work Australia has published Workplace exposure standards for airborne contaminants (2024).

Current Safe Work Australia exposure standards are:

• Wood dust (softwood): 5 mg per cubic metre TWA (8-hour time weighted average), 10 mg per cubic metre STEL (short term exposure limit).
• Wood dust (certain hardwoods such as beech and oak): 1 mg per cubic metre TWA.
• Formaldehyde: 1 part per million (1.2 mg per cubic metre) TWA, 2 parts per million (2.5 mg per cubic metre) STEL. 

For more information view Workplace Exposure Limits – airborne contaminants.

Occupational exposure monitoring is done by taking samples in the breathing zone of an employee in accordance with Australian Standard AS 3640-2009, Workplace atmospheres - Method for sampling and gravimetric determination of inhalable dust.

If atmospheric monitoring has been undertaken, an employer must keep a record of the atmospheric monitoring for 30 years unless WorkSafe specifies a lesser period.

An employer must also ensure that the record of atmospheric monitoring is readily accessible to any employee who has been or may be exposed to the wood dust the monitoring was done for.

Atmospheric monitoring should be carried out by a suitably qualified person such as an occupational hygienist. For more information view the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists’ website.

Review and revise risk controls

Employers must review and, if necessary, revise risk controls:

• before making a change to systems of work that is likely to change the risk associated with exposure to wood dust
• if a health monitoring report was obtained, and a registered medical practitioner advised there were adverse health effects identified
• if new or additional information about a hazard or risk becomes available
• after an incident has occurred, which Part 5 of the OHS Act applies
• if the risk control measures do not adequately control risks
• after receiving a request from a health and safety representative (HSR).

Consultation

Employers must consult with their employees, and any HSRs, when identifying hazards and risks with wood dust, and when deciding on how to control risks.

Employees also include any labour hire workers, independent contractors and any employees of independent contractors.

Consultation must happen with the employees who are, or may be affected, before any decisions are made as to the changes required in the workplace to control risks. The consultation process must provide workers the opportunity to express their views and take those views into account.

Legal duties

Employers have a general duty under OHS Act to provide and maintain, so far as is reasonably practicable, a working environment that is safe and without risks to health. This includes a general duty to eliminate risks to health and safety or, where this is not possible, to reduce those risks so far as is reasonably practicable.

Under the OHS Regulations, there are employer duties for hazardous substances, which include wood dust.