DANGER SILICA DUST

A VIEW FROM THE P-WAY RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2015 :: RMTnews 16 After working as a coal miner before the Tories shut down the pits, I started work on High Output track renewals in 2006. I had previously worked for various agencies on renewals and I noticed then that Ballast created as much if not more dust than any coal face. But high output was something else and very little was done to protect workers, dust masks where available sometimes, but the wearing of them was not compulsory. If a dust cloud appeared then workers would put a t-shirt over their nose to act as a filter. It has been my mission, along with other RMT safety reps, to improve working conditions throughout the rail industry. So what is the problem? Since 2005 Network Rail has used contractors to operate the high output work, private companies such as Babcock/Sweitlesky, Amey Colas, and Fastline Jarvis. These companies have a good appetite for profit but pay very little attention to the protection of workers from dust. Ballast dust has been a major issue right back to the days of British Rail. Men working in gangs operated wagons tipping ballast onto the track and more recently with auto-hoppers diggers, dozers and every other piece of plant that moves ballast, usually picking it up and dropping it several times. In 2012, the HSE published new independent research, led by Dr Lesley Ruston of imperial Collage London, into the burden of occupational cancers in the UK caused by workplace exposure. Based on the research, HSE estimates that almost 800 deaths a year are caused from occupational silica exposure. According to the ORR Latest report Better Health is DANGER SILICA DUST Track worker John Pencott outlines the dangers of silica dust, which kills around 800 people each year, and asks workers to get help if affected