Chapter 1 – Recap: RCS and its potential health effects
Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) is fine dust that may be generated when materials containing crystalline silica are processed.
Crystalline silica, in the form of the mineral quartz, is found in many different materials. In this chapter you’ll find a list of 15 industries in which workplace exposure to RCS is acknowledged and approached as a health risk.
Click on your industry to read more – make sure to read the information about your domain!
Aggregates
Aggregates
The most common natural aggregates are sand, gravel and crushed rock. While the risks of developing silicosis due to working with these materials is generally low, they can contain a wide range of free silica content (0-100%). Examples of processes that generate RCS include crushing, drying, grinding, bulk loading and unloading, bagging, and bag emptying.
Calcium Silicate Masonry Units
Calcium Silicate Masonry Units
Calcium silicate masonry units are produced by mixing sand, lime and water. This mixture of natural ingredients is moulded into shape by mechanical or hydraulic presses. RCS dust generation can mainly occur in raw material handling and shaping mechanical treatments.
Cement Industry
Cement Industry
Cement is a powdered substance mainly used as the binding agent in the making of concrete. Examples of processes that generate RCS include crushing, drying, bulk loading & unloading, and bag emptying.
Ceramics Industry
Ceramics Industry
The ceramics industry uses silica as a structural ingredient and as a constituent of glazes. Products containing silica include tableware, wall and floor tiles, bricks and roof tiles, refractories, etc. Examples of processes that generate RCS include cutting and polishing, dry pressing, and final treatment.
Engineered Stones
Engineered Stones
Engineered stones, or Agglomerate Stones, are the evolution in the tradition of the old “Terrazzo Tiles.” Today, Agglomerate Stone is industrially manufactured by means of different moulding technologies, using vibration and simultaneous compression under vacuum, with minimum additives. Examples of processes that generate RCS include bulk loading and unloading, isostatic pressing, and cutting.
Expanded Clay Industry
Expanded Clay Industry
Expanded clay is a ceramic-based lightweight aggregate made by heating clay to approx. 1,200 °C in a rotary kiln. Examples of processes that generate RCS include crushing and drying raw materials, mixing, bagging, as well as bulk loading and unloading.
Foundries
Foundries
The foundry industry’s products are ferrous, steel, or non-ferrous metal castings produced by pouring molten metal into moulds which are typically, in total or in parts, made of bonded silica sand. Examples of processes that generate RCS include bag emptying, bulk loading and unloading, core making and moulding, among others.
Glass Industry
Glass Industry
Silicon dioxide is the principal glass forming oxide and thus silica sand is the major raw material used in most glass types. After melting the raw material, there is no crystalline silica anymore in glass which is an amorphous material. Examples of processes that generate RCS include batch charging, drying, bulk unloading, and grinding.
Gypsum Industry
Gypsum Industry
Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral, used widely in plaster and plasterboard, drywall, and blackboard. Traces of silica can be found in the raw gypsum materials, or in additives for creating gypsum-based products. Examples of processes that generate RCS include crushing, drying, mixing, grinding, and bulk loading and unloading.
Industrial Minerals
Industrial Minerals
Industrial minerals are commercially valuable minerals and rocks. Silica is found commonly in the crystalline state but occurs also in an amorphous (non-crystalline) state. Examples of processes that generate RCS include quarry mobile processing, drilling, bag filling, mixing, grinding and drying materials.
Metal Ores
Metal Ores
A wide range of metal ores are extracted within the EU and for some, such as, antimony, bauxite, chromium, cobalt, copper, gold, iron, lead, manganese, nickel, silver, titanium, the EU is a relatively significant producer. Although not all do, metal ores may contain variable amounts of crystalline silica. Examples of processes that generate RCS include bag emptying, crushing, and bulk loading and unloading.
Mineral Wool
Mineral Wool
Mineral wool has a unique range of properties, combining high thermal resistance with long-term stability. It is made from molten glass, stone or slag that is spun into a fibre-like structure. Among mineral wools, only glass wool is of concern with regard to crystalline silica as glass wool is manufactured using sand, whilst stone wool is not. After melting the raw material for glass wool, there is no crystalline silica anymore. Examples of processes that generate RCS include furnace charging, bag fulling and emptying and bulk loading and unloading.
Natural Stone Industry
Natural Stone Industry
Work with natural stones not only covers the production of stone in quarries, much more important is the processing and the implementation of stones. Examples of processes that generate RCS include bag filling and emptying, crushing, drying and grinding.
Mortar Industry
Mortar Industry
Mortars consist of aggregates, one or more binders, possibly additives and/or admixtures as well as, depending on the type of binder, water. Mortar is distinguished from concrete based on the grain size of the aggregates. Examples of processes that generate RCS include bag filling, bulk loading and unloading, drying, and mixing materials.
Precast Concrete Industry
Precast Concrete Industry
Precast concrete is a factory-made building material widely used worldwide and available in all sizes and forms, from very small paving units to more than 50 metres long bridge elements. Its production process consists in mixing cement, aggregates, water, additives and admixtures in different proportions, pouring them in moulds and letting them harden. Dust generation can mainly occur in raw material handling and post-manufacturing mechanical treatments.
Ready Mixed Concrete
Ready Mixed Concrete
Ready mixed concrete is a mixture of cement, water, aggregates (sand, gravel or crushed stone), chemical admixtures, eventually additions (fly ash, silica fume, ground granulated furnace slags and others) entrapped and entrained air. Dust generation can mainly occur in the plant where the aggregates are stored before being mixed: ready mixed concrete is manufactured in batching plants and mixed with either stationary or truck mounted mixers.
Click on the block with the sector that you work in
English 
Bulgarian 
Croatian 
Czech 
Danish 
Dutch 
Estonian 
Finnish 
French 
German 
Greek 
Hungarian 
Italian 
Latvian 
Lithuanian 
Maltese 
Polish 
Portuguese 
Romanian 
Slovak 
Slovenian 
Spanish 
Swedish