The link between silica dust levels, risk assessments, and regulations

Improvements in workplace health among silica exposed workers followed demonstrations of the severity of the risk of silicosis and means of controlling high dust levels on the job. Current ambient environmental analyses include either an adoption of air quality goals for reducing emissions of criteria pollutants or the conduct of risk assessments to determine if regulatory procedures are needed. Although silica has been regulated as a workplace hazard for most of the 20th century, only recently has it been considered for ambient control, and most of the thrust for this action has evolved from environmental regulatory work in California, where both state initiative (Proposition 65) and legislative law (Air Toxics Hot Spots Information and Assessment Act; Assembly Bill number 2588) have required risk assessments for silica dust emissions as carcinogens.