The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has posted a new Combustible Dust Safety and Health Topics webpage on its website to help employers address hazardous combustible dust.

The webpage at www.osha.gov/dsg/combustibledust/index.html features a link to the National Emphasis Program on Combustible Dust that provides information on compliance with existing standards, an understanding of the hazard, and methods of abatement and collection of data for analysis.

OSHA assistant secretary Edwin G Foulke Jr says the webpage is part of a long-term, ongoing program to address the hazards.
"Fires and explosions resulting from combustible dust can pose a significant danger at the workplace," Foulke says.

Certain combustible substances, when divided into dust-like form and suspended in air, can become explosive.

Industries that have combustible dust include food, grain, tobacco, plastics, wood, paper, pulp, rubber, furniture, textiles, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, coal, metals and fossil fuel power generation.