Historically the most common form of abrasive blasting, sand blasting, has generated respirable quartz dust, which can lead to the development of silicosis, a deadly lung disease that continues to occur in abrasive blasters. Several substitutes for silica sand have been suggested, but little data exist which compare the respiratory health hazards of substitute abrasives to silica sand. This study compares the dust generation characteristics and in vivo toxicity of several blasting abrasives (table 1). Studies were conducted in controlled environments to compare concentrations of respirable quartz, respirable dust, and various toxic contaminants for each of the substitute abrasives relative to silica sand. Abrasive blasting with silica sand generated respirable quartz concentrations much greater than the NIOSH recommended exposure limit of 0.05 mg/m3, while the concentrations of respirable quartz were much lower when using substitute abrasives (table 2). However, some substitute abrasives generated concentrations of potentially toxic components more than 10 times the NIOSH REL (table 3). Steel grit was the only substitute abrasive that generated significantly less respirable dust than silica sand. NIOSH investigators reported the relative short-term in vivo toxicity of these substitutes by using intratracheal instillation of equal respirable dust concentrations of each abrasive in male rats. Short-term in vivo evidence indicates that, compared to silica sand, steel grit and specular hematite have less potential to cause lung disease. The potential long-term toxicity of steel grit requires further studies because it contains arsenic and nickel and some forms of arsenic and nickel can cause cancer. Each of the other substitute blasting abrasives caused in vivo lung toxicity similar to or greater than silica sand. Regardless of the choice of abrasive, effective engineering controls, work practices, and respiratory protection (i.e., Type CE abrasive-blasting supplied-air respirators for abrasive blasters) should be used to reduce the hazards associated with blasting abrasives and substrates.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.