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Employers are required to limit worker exposure to respirable crystalline silica and take necessary measures to protect workers. Crystalline silica is a common material found in construction such as concrete, brick, sand, stone, and mortar. Workers are exposed to silica during operations that involve cutting, grinding, drilling, crushing, or sweeping materials that contain silica. Crystalline silica is especially dangerous because the particles that are breathed in by workers are extremely small and can enter the lungs, causing incurable silicosis, cancer, or deadly lung disease.
OSHA’s construction respirable crystalline silica requirements apply to all workers who may be subject to occupational exposure to crystalline silica in construction work, except where employee exposure will remain below 25 micrograms per cubic meter (25 μg/m3) of air as an 8-hour time-weighted average under any foreseeable conditions.
Construction employers can either use a control method, or they can measure workers’ exposure to silica and independently decide which dust controls work best to limit exposures to the PEL in their workplaces.
Regardless of which exposure control method is used, all construction employers covered by the standard are required to: