Posted By John Tidyman
I would appreciate some advice with regards to the dust generated when ballast is dropped while carrying out renewal work.

I have seen this carried out on a few occasions, once with very little dust being generated and the other time it was like the clouds had descended upon the work site.

We currently implement and enforce the use of dust masks as a precautionary measure for those in the vicinity.

However I would like to broaden my knowledge and in a conversation I had today while on a course it was suggested that the dust may be carcinogenic with quite severe long term health effects, this is something I was not aware of.

Is anyone aware of any medical evidence to back this up?

Posted By Jennifer Kelly
John -

We had the same problem on a site I was working on, added to that it was a very dry summer and on a windy day the dust clouds that were produced when the ballast was being dispensed onto the track were quite a sight to see.

Trying to measure the impact on health however was very tricky as it was outside and we couldn't measure with any real certainty how much was being inhaled by people working in the area. Occupational health did undertake some baseline measurements of lung capacity and other related indicators but this did not provide any useful data.

We decided that the most effective way to control exposure to the ballast dust was to use a sprinkler system to water down the ballast as it was sitting in in the ballast wagons immediately prior to being taken to the track. The area in which this was done was bunded so the contaminated water was contained and recycled providing a continuous system. This did much to alleviate the problem but we also provided suitable face and nose masks to the workers involved as final barrier.

Hope this is of help/interest,

Jennifer