Certain jobs expose workers to occupational health hazards more than others and, in these cases, appropriate exposure control measures need to be applied. Workers in bakery, flour manufacturing, and food processing settings may be at risk of developing adverse health effects as a result of exposure to flour dust.
Flour dust: chemical hazard in food processing industries
Workers are frequently exposed to flour dust in food processing industries and are therefore at risk of developing a number of adverse health effects, particularly during certain phases of the manufacturing process. The lifting and shifting of food flour gives rise to airborne flour dust which workers may inhale with consequent chemical risk to their respiratory system, in particular. Activities such as weighing, sieving, grinding, mixing, cutting, cleaning, and so on, inevitably lead to an excessive exposure of the workers’ respiratory tract to flour dust, which then settles in the lungs and, in the long term, may result in more or less serious occupational diseases. From a simple feeling of discomfort to actual difficulty in breathing, from infection to inflammation of the respiratory tract, from the onset of asthma to more complicated oxygen related syndromes, food flour dust can lead to particularly serious or even lethal pathologies. For this reason, worker protection from exposure to airborne flour dust through appropriate respiratory protective devices (RDP) is as necessary as it is essential.
Which RPD are to be used for protection against flour dust?
Fortunately, the problem of flour dust related health risks can be overcome quite easily through the use of specific RPD also in use for work in food industries in general.
These are protective devices that filter the environment air before it is inhaled by workers thus preventing flour dust from settling in the respiratory system.
In most cases the devices used by workers are powered air purifying respirators (PAPRs) and certain models are equipped with full facepieces which protect the eyes and face as well as the respiratory tract. Furthermore, these types of respirators are designed to prevent the visor misting up because they are equipped with exhalation valves through which excess and exhaled air, the actual cause of visor misting, is expelled.
Moreover, these respirators are equipped with highly efficient particle filters which may also be used in other industrial sectors that process dissimilar types of products and where the occupational chemical risks are not flour dust related, but are of biological, metallurgical or pharmaceutical origin.
PAPRs equipped with full face masks and certified according to local or international occupational health and safety standards represent the ideal solution to the problem of chemical risks originating from flour dust.
Apr 9 2018
PPE for use in food industries – the importance of protecting workers from exposure to flour dust
Flour dust: chemical hazard in food processing industries
Workers are frequently exposed to flour dust in food processing industries and are therefore at risk of developing a number of adverse health effects, particularly during certain phases of the manufacturing process. The lifting and shifting of food flour gives rise to airborne flour dust which workers may inhale with consequent chemical risk to their respiratory system, in particular. Activities such as weighing, sieving, grinding, mixing, cutting, cleaning, and so on, inevitably lead to an excessive exposure of the workers’ respiratory tract to flour dust, which then settles in the lungs and, in the long term, may result in more or less serious occupational diseases. From a simple feeling of discomfort to actual difficulty in breathing, from infection to inflammation of the respiratory tract, from the onset of asthma to more complicated oxygen related syndromes, food flour dust can lead to particularly serious or even lethal pathologies. For this reason, worker protection from exposure to airborne flour dust through appropriate respiratory protective devices (RDP) is as necessary as it is essential.
Which RPD are to be used for protection against flour dust?
Fortunately, the problem of flour dust related health risks can be overcome quite easily through the use of specific RPD also in use for work in food industries in general.
These are protective devices that filter the environment air before it is inhaled by workers thus preventing flour dust from settling in the respiratory system.
In most cases the devices used by workers are powered air purifying respirators (PAPRs) and certain models are equipped with full facepieces which protect the eyes and face as well as the respiratory tract. Furthermore, these types of respirators are designed to prevent the visor misting up because they are equipped with exhalation valves through which excess and exhaled air, the actual cause of visor misting, is expelled.
Moreover, these respirators are equipped with highly efficient particle filters which may also be used in other industrial sectors that process dissimilar types of products and where the occupational chemical risks are not flour dust related, but are of biological, metallurgical or pharmaceutical origin.
PAPRs equipped with full face masks and certified according to local or international occupational health and safety standards represent the ideal solution to the problem of chemical risks originating from flour dust.
By Kasco Srl • Blog •