Dust and Fume Control

Thousands of British workers contract occupational asthma and other occupational lung diseases each year. They develop them because they breathe in too much dust, fume or other airborne contaminants at work. Even though the number of accident related deaths are reducing over the long term, deaths due to exposure remain stubbornly high. Local exhaust ventilation (LEV) is a common and important way of controlling exposure to hazardous dusts and fumes. Work by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has shown that these LEV systems are often poorly designed and maintained and do not effectively control exposure to particulates.