Workplace exposure to Crystalline Silica

Crystalline silica (SiO2) is an essential component of materials which have an abundance of uses in industry and are vital in many products and objects we use everyday: it is impossible to imagine houses without bricks, mortar or windows, cars without engines or windscreens, life without roads or other transport infrastructures and everyday items made of glass or pottery.

Although crystalline silica is ubiquitous in nature, the inhalation of fine dust containing a proportion of it may constitute a hazard that is limited to the workplace. Considering that such an exposure can be controlled, the main industries concerned by possible exposures to respirable crystalline silica agreed on appropriate and credible measures for the improvement of working conditions.

OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE LIMITS

The following table shows the Occupational Exposure Limits (OEL) for quartz, cristobalite and tridymite in application in European countries.

Download OEL EU Table
Updated July 2024