While the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration plans to revamp its outdated silica-dust standard, a voluntary partnership of asphalt-paving groups is closing in on recommended methods to cut down the amount of airborne silica dust generated by road-milling machines.
“The goal is to determine exactly how much silica-containing dust asphalt-milling machines generate and to minimize workers’ exposure to it,” says Gary Fore, vice president of the National Asphalt Pavement Association, Lanham, Md. The task force includes government scientists, manufacturers, unions, contractors and industry trade groups.