Controlling silica exposure during fettling of castings

In foundries, once  the casting is removed from the mould it is usually necessary to remove excess metal and remedy defects. This process is usually referred to as “fettling” or “finishing”. Fettling normally involves the use of powered hand tools such as chippers and grinders. The operation presents a number of significant risks. Using power

Getting on top of Long Latency Disease

On Wednesday 9 March I attended a meeting on “long latency disease” organised by the BOHS North West Region. I guess the subject wouldn’t mean much to many people. In fact it simply means diseases that take a long time to develop following exposure to hazardous substances. This includes diseases such as cancer caused by

Are the Tate’s sunflower seeds a risk to health?

Last week I took a short break in London. On Monday we visited the Tate Modern to see the Gauguin exhibition that had recently opened. On arriving at the gallery we noticed that there was something going on in the Turbine hall. We could see that the floor in a large area of the hall