Investigation of dust exposure and control practices in the construction industry: Implications for cleaner production

Abstract

Construction is a major contributor to pollution in the natural environment. Among all construction pollutants, construction dust is the most significant pollutant that endangers human health. To expand the limited scope of studies on construction dust exposure, this study investigates current dust control practices in the construction industry in Hong Kong through dust monitoring data compilation. The database constructed and compiled by this study is larger than any other previous dust-related datasets in the construction industry in Hong Kong. A total of 837 samples are collected from 33 construction sites and 16 contractors, among which 783 valid samples are analyzed. Descriptive statistics are reported in terms of “construction process”, “trade”, “tools”, “data source type”, and “dust control measure”. Overall geometric mean for personal exposures are 0.314 (geometric standard deviations: 3.929) mg/m3 for respirable dust and 0.003 (geometric standard deviations: 5.105) mg/m3 for quartz concentration. It is found that the top three dust respirable exposures are from cement mixing, concrete breaking, and manual demolition, whereas grinding and rock breaking are recorded the two highest processes in terms of quartz exposure. Analytical results indicate that respiratory protection commonly used on construction sites is often inadequate for exposures encountered. Data variability within task and tool is large, with high exposures reported for a broad spectrum of tools. This study attains a large dataset to represent as many dust production construction activities as possible, determining the most influential factors for predicting dust exposure and evaluating the effectiveness of current dust control practices. This knowledge should, in turn, lead to enhanced practices of dust control in Hong Kong and highlight areas that need improvements.