In Australia, silica dust monitoring is governed by national standards and regulations to protect workers from the harmful effects of respirable crystalline silica (RCS). These standards are primarily outlined by Safe Work Australia and are reflected in various pieces of legislation and codes of practice. The use of personal sampling pumps and filter cassettes is the most widely used method and involves collecting a sample of airborne dust on a filter and then analyzing the mass of dust collected to determine the concentration. The analysis is often conducted by a third party laboratory.

Real-time, laser based measurement devices have existed for decades and many organizations have used these to monitor dust and or other airborne particulates on their sites and or in their workplaces. Government departments, research groups, the EPA locally and globally and many other reputable organizations have been successfully using real-time laser based technologies for many years. Applications include monitoring dust, smoke, diesel particulates, welding fumes and many other airborne particulates.

That all said, real-time laser based devices of this nature should only are used for indicative dust / particle measurements. They are not real-time silica dust monitors, where they will measure silica dust only at the exclusion of other airborne dusts and aerosols within the particle size range of the device. While calibration or offset factors can be applied to different real-time instruments on the market (including ours) to compensate for the refractive index of silica dust, this still does not make laser based monitors of this nature precise & validated silica dust only monitors.

Silica Dust Monitoring

Real-time particle measurement instruments such as those displayed above (and others we supply) can play a vital role in silica dust monitoring in the workplace. While they (like others on the market) cannot truly differentiate between silca and other airborne dusts, the ability to accurately measure overall dust and particulates in real-time, with data logging, real-time alarms / alerts and other key features provides companies with highly valuable data they can use and act on. Companies can’t hope to properly control what they can’t measure. Monitoring and keeping the overall dust levels down can help reduce silica dust levels in the air.

For close to 40 years, our staff at Alpha Scientific have specialized in the supply or particulate measurement technologies across many industries and working with many global instrument manufacturers. We are highly experienced in the supply of optical particle counters, spectrometers, nephelometers, photometers, time of flight, diffraction and many other particulate measurement technologies and we are aware of the pros and cons of different measurement instruments and technologies on the market. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.