Woodworking (sawmills, carpentry, furniture, vocational schools, etc.) involves difficult positions in contact with machines and all too often leads to accidents and occupational diseases. To prevent them, the implementation of preventive measures is essential. The main risks in the wood industry are linked to explosion and exposure.
Your installation must comply with the standards in force: NF-EN-12779 version 2016 (design of wood dust and chip extraction installations), ATEX Directives, INRS Guides ED 750 (ventilation for secondary wood processing), ED 6021 (fire and explosion in the wood industry), French Labour Code R4412-149 (VLE = Valeur Limite d'Exposition ˂ 1mg/m3), R4222-14 and R4222-17 (recycling of air).
Wood dusts of any kind can cause short-term illness and cancer, even decades after exposure. Many employees are exposed to it. What can be done to prevent exposure? Reduce dust emissions. Work involving exposure to inhalable wood dust is included in the regulatory list of work or processes involving exposure to carcinogens. It is therefore the prevention rules specific to activities involving agents classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic to reproduction (CMR) that must be implemented.
As work involving exposure to wood dust is on the list of carcinogenic processes (decree of 26 October 2020), special preventive measures and reinforced individual health monitoring are applicable to workers exposed to wood dust (articles R. 4412-59 to R. 4412-93 of the Labour Code relating to special provisions for dangerous chemical agents that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction). In addition, wood dusts have a binding 8-hour regulatory occupational exposure limit value (OELV) of 1 mg/m3 (Article R. 4412-149 of the Labour Code). Compliance with this VLEP is checked by an accredited body at least once a year and whenever there is a change that affects workers' health. If this VLEP is exceeded, work must be stopped at exposed workstations and appropriate preventive measures must be implemented.
Compliance with this occupational exposure limit value should be considered as a minimum prevention objective, as worker exposure should be reduced to the lowest level possible. As the ventilation of premises where wood dust is emitted is considered as a specific pollution area, they must comply with the requirements of the French Labour Code (articles R. 4222-10 to R. 4222-22), giving priority to dust collection at source and regulating air recycling. By calling on NEU-JKF Wood Industry and its various dust collection, ventilation and extraction solutions, you are in total harmony with these regulations and ensure that your operators enjoy the best working and environmental conditions.
In the form of airborne dust, it can lead to explosions. Due to the presence of large quantities of dust, which can reach concentrations above the lower explosive limit (LEL of 30 to 40 g/m3 ), wood dust and wood chip collection and storage facilities present real explosion risks. In view of the explosion risk associated with wood dust, the ATEX provisions on explosive atmospheres apply. Every responsible in the wood industry must take measures to
| Prevent the formation of explosive atmospheres
| Prevent the ignition of explosive atmospheres
| Minimise the effects of an explosion and prevent it from spreading.
For this, it is necessary to identify the areas with explosive atmospheres and therefore to know your configuration and your installations well in order to be able to apply technical preventive measures and to ensure that all equipment (electrical and non-electrical) is adapted to the area in which it is located, to avoid an accumulation of static electricity but also to prevent the suction of bulky and/or metallic elements which could cause sparks, to apply organisational preventive measures (cleaning of the workshop and regular maintenance of the installation, implementation of intervention procedures, etc.), but also to provide, for any wood dust suction installation, for the installation of a filter before releasing the dust-laden air into the outside atmosphere and, if necessary, for the installation of a filter. ), but also, for any wood dust extraction system, to install a filter before the dust-laden air is released into the outside atmosphere and, even more so, if the air is recycled and returned to the workshop.
Find here all our solutions for dust removal, ventilation, suction and air cooling which will allow you to be in total compliance with the regulations related to the wood industry.
