CPWR Launches 'One Stop' Silica Website
Its breadth is impressive -– tools, training materials, hazard awareness, and a What's Working section to share success stories and discuss challenges are included.
CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training has launched a new website sure to be of use to anyone concerned with workers' silica exposures and controls to prevent them. The site, named Working Safely with Silica, offers numerous resources to help contractors and workers understand the health risk involved and implement measures to control dust.
The site's central feature is a Create-A-Plan e-tool allowing users to develop a job-specific plan for controlling silica exposures in three easy steps, with options for identifying a material's silica content, determining the level of exposure, and finding available controls.
Pete Stafford, CPWR's executive director, noted in an email about the new site that as visitors make selections and enter information via the tool, "a plan tailored for your jobsite is automatically generated that you can save, print, email, and -- as an added benefit -- use as a toolbox talk on the job."
Also on the site are a Know the Hazard, a Training & Other Resources section, and a What's Working section to share success stories and challenges.
OSHA offers information about crystalline silica hazards in construction and other industries at this website, and its page about silica hazards for workers involved in hydraulic fracturing is here.