Silica Safety For Workers

Silica dust is a serious health hazard on many jobsites—but the harm it causes is preventable. Employers have a legal responsibility to protect workers. This page focuses on what can be done every day to reduce exposure and protect your lungs.

Unfamiliar with silica? Visit Silica Basics for a quick overview.

Why This Matters

When you breathe in respirable crystalline silica, the particles can lodge deep in your lungs, where your body can’t remove them. Breathing in respirable crystalline silica can cause silicosis—a permanent lung disease that scars the lungs and makes it harder to breathe, as well as other diseases, including lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

You may not feel symptoms right away, but the damage can build over time. The good news: silica-related illnesses are preventable when dust is controlled.

Your Choices Make a Difference

Employers are responsible for controls; workers help keep them effective. Your health can be protected when you:  

  • Use all available dust controls.
  • Follow site procedures for dusty work.
  • Wear PPE properly and consistently.

Small actions add up and they help prevent silica-related illness.

If silica dust is present, employers are responsible for assessing the level of exposure and putting appropriate controls in place.

The following are common ways to control silica on the job site:

  • Use wet methods to reduce dust during cutting, drilling, etc.
  • Use dust collection or ventilation systems.
  • Limit dust spread and keep others away from dusty tasks.
  • Use wet cleanup or HEPA vacuums.
  • Avoid dry sweeping or blowing dust with compressed air.

Your role in staying safe

You can help protect yourself and others when you follow the controls provided by your employer:

  • Use the dust controls and safe work methods provided by your employer.
  • Follow site procedures and training.
  • Wear required PPE as trained.
  • Report heavy dust, missing controls, or damaged equipment to your supervisor.
  • Tell your supervisor if PPE isn’t working properly.

Know your rights: You can report unsafe conditions to your supervisor or JOHS Committee and refuse work that can’t be done safely, such as cutting stone without suitable protection.

Construction Workers: Higher Exposure Risk

Construction workers are the largest exposed group in Canada due to the frequency of high-dust tasks such as cutting, grinding, drilling, demolition, and cleanup.

If you work in construction, silica exposure is more likely—which makes consistent use of dust controls, site procedures, and PPE especially important.

Source: Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

PPE is an important layer of protection and works best alongside dust controls. It is the last line of defence in the hierarchy of controls, a safety approach that focuses on removing hazards at the source before relying on human behaviour or personal protective equipment.

In practice, this means using elimination, engineering controls (like wet methods or ventilation), and safe work procedures first. PPE is added when these measures can’t fully eliminate exposure.

PPE is especially important where the other controls cannot fully mitigate the risk of exposure and during higher-dust tasks, such as:

  • Cutting, grinding, or drilling concrete, stone, or masonry.
  • Demolition, chipping, or jackhammering.
  • Sanding or polishing silica-containing materials.
  • Dry cleanup of dusty debris.

PPE Checklist

Use the personal protective equipment required for your task and worksite. This may include:

  • Respiratory protection: Wear the respirator your site assigns for silica dust. An N95 may be used for lower-dust tasks when assigned, but many silica tasks require higher-efficiency filters such as N100, R100, or P100. Use it only as trained and fit-tested.
  • Eye protection to prevent irritation from dust.
  • Work clothing that can be removed/cleaned to avoid bringing dust home.
  • Gloves as needed for the task.

Quick Tips for Using PPE Properly

  • Report to your supervisor right away if PPE is damaged, doesn’t fit, or isn’t working properly.
  • Wear your respirator the whole time you’re in a dusty area.
  • Make sure it fits correctly and is worn the way you were trained and follow manufacturer’s instructions for cleaning and maintaining.
  • Keep filters and equipment clean and store PPE in a dust-free place.
  • Change filters as required. With heavy exposure, this could include filter changes every shift.

Use these tools to learn more, reduce exposure, and work safely.

Learn the Basics

  • Nova SAFE – Overview of crystalline silica, risks, and prevention in Nova Scotia.
  • Nova SAFE – Nova Scotia laws and regulations.
  • Nova SAFE – Additional silica tools and reference materials.
  • CCOHS Podcast – Overview of silica risks and prevention.

Contact the Nova Scotia Labour Standards Contact Centre at 1-800-9LABOUR if you have concerns or questions about workplace safety.

PPE & Respiratory Protection

  • Nova SAFE – Respirator basics, requirements, and best practices
  • Nova SAFE – General PPE expectations for Nova Scotia workplaces.

Training

  • CSNS – Formal training for workers who may encounter silica.

Real Voices on the Risks of Silica

  • “If silica seems like just another part of the job, consider this: I inhaled it at work and now live with systemic scleroderma. I take 28 pills a day, see multiple specialists and have organs that will never recover. There is no cure. Silica exposure has permanent consequences.”
    Tara
    Former Field Geologist