Definitely an OSHA requirement, but there's no guarantee that 1) management supports the necessary supplies, checks, reminders, actions, etc or 2) workers want to wear the respirators/masks in general. On top of that, inspectors may be instructed (depending on inspection management, training, etc) that the water based dust suppression is good enough. Even if they want to see masks, management and workers may only implement them during inspections. Adherence to rules is necessary for rules to do anything anywere, ever.
Even though there are whistle-blower protection laws, they aren't good enough. No-one should fear risking their job when they stand up for their own health.
Management on the other hand should enforce masks as a means to avoid liability.
What should happen is if someone sees it they call 911 and the cops show up. Followed by the county permit inspector. And then the owner gets arrested and the job site shut down for 6-12 months. Seriously that's what happened at friends workplace when an electrician got fried working on a live 440 volt panel. Don't see why a counter top shop should be treated any different.
Have you ever wore a respirator? Not a mask (which all already uncomfortable to wear all day), but the full respirator which is what is needed for this dust. I've done it for an hour when working with chemicals (different filter from dust, but otherwise the same) and I was glad to get it off.it is hard to blame someone for not wanting to wear them all day. They still should.
If you need to wear a respirator all day i'm told the most comfortable is an air supply and dragging a hose behind you.
I have a wood shop, I wear a respirator constantly unless I've got the doors open and the fans on and I'm not going to be doing more than a one-off cut that afternoon. A properly fitted 3M 6800-series full-face respirator is pretty comfortable even for long periods and while wearing glasses. A 6200-series half-mask is even more comfortable, though a little awkward with glasses.
The only problem is that a 6800-series costs $200, plus probably $30 a month in P100 cartridges given the level of particulates in the air, and that's more than these companies think their workers' lives are worth.
I've got a 3M full-face respirator as well, and I agree. I've worn it with P100 filters for 8+ hours (minus breaks to drink water) doing hard work in uncomfortable conditions many times, and never found the respirator to be a burden.
They're a little pricey up front, but I figured it was cheap overall compared to the long-term costs of using something less effective. Having eye protection integrated as well is ideal, since it never fogs up.
I got one of their FF400 face shield respirators to do lead paint removal and spent dozens of hours in unconditioned spaces with a tyvek suit. They are extremely well designed and never fog because the inhaled air passes first through the face mask area and then through one-way valves into the mouth/nose section and is exhausted downward at the front of the mouth/nose area.
I used it during the beginning of COVID to protect myself up until I was vaccinated and went for about 18 months before getting infected. Definitely got some odd looks at Costco.
Maybe you are meaning for medical staff? Yeah there's a fully unfiltered exhaust stream blowing downwards.
I too am a proponent of proper half face respirators (7500 here), and they are quite comfortable compared to the various disposable solutions, but I'd still acknowledge that wearing one does carry some discomfort. Not enough to make me want to get silicosis instead, but also not so little that I can confidently say I'm happy wearing it for 8 hours.
What's your solution for the full face with glasses? The spectacle kit looks like it's a frame that you need to get custom lenses put into. The few times I've worn mine (FF-400) I've just suffered the extra ear pressure, but it's not great. It's also a size too small because it was what was in stock at the start of Covid when nobody knew wtf was going to happen, but I don't see that increasing one size would change much. I plan to eventually trying to form a custom thing to hold a regular pair of glasses.
And have you really found the P100 cartridges need to be discarded every few weeks? The only things I've found say that particulate filters only need to be discarded when they become difficult to breathe through, and I've never actually reached that point.
Wearing a respirator mask is substantially more pleasant when you're just farting around your hobby shop (and only when the temperature is pleasant or cool), than it is when you're actually working at a productivity level expected of laborers, with heavy stone, in an industrial workshop, no matter the temperature and humidity.
Try spending an hour in your shop constantly lugging heavy tools and wood around wearing that respirator on a humid 80 degree day, then you can be smug and waggle your finger at laborers for not protecting themselves.
I mentioned the wood shop because I have expended considerably more energy in that shop and also in researching how to do so safely, but I've owned a property management company and personally I've done two house remodels where I did most of the demolition (and most things that weren't framing or plumbing) myself. I don't like to do it, but I am no stranger to spending hours at a stretch working in a half-mask, over my head, in Some Weather, in crawlspaces, attics, and basements.
Yes, I'm extremely fortunate that I can pay for help when needed, but I do quite a lot of my own work. So, if you're going to invent a guy to be mad at, maybe you should pick a softer target.
FWIW, I'm not a professional, but I've worn a full-face respirator while spending entire days working in extremely hot crawlspaces, demo'ing and removing heavy antique cast iron drain pipe, running a wet saw for large-format tile, etc.
I'm just one datapoint, but my assumption would be that if it's truly too much of a burden, their employer should be buying better respirators and/or filters.
A key insight into things like this is that many regulations are like speed limits: loosely enforced. Sometimes because it is too hard to inspect every shop handling dangerous materials.
In cases like these you have to ban the dangerous material, or essentially kill the market for the products that use it.
BTW, I'm not sure how solid granite, soapstone, marble, etc. would be any better. Maybe my 30 year old totally fake Corian is back in style. But for the microplastics from scrubbing it?
The silica content varies significantly based on the stone being cut. Engineered stone is apparently like 90%+ silica, with the rest being binders. Granite is apparently ~10-45% silica, while marble has a negligible amount.
The pamphlet said that in one study, a marble shop performing dry grinding (no wetting, nor other engineering controls) had airborne silica levels of 39-45 ug/m3, while a granite shop which also did not use engineering controls say 89-460ug/m3.
how big do you have to be to get an actual OSHA inspection? I've worked in lost of small and medium shops of various kinds and the local fire department will show an interest sometimes, but I've never heard of anyone getting involved with OSHA for any reason.
They do, just like the ATF requires all sorts of record-keeping for gun sales and the EPA has rules about disposal of chemicals and the IRS has all sorts of tax regulations.
However, all three organizations have been subject to decades of budgetary cuts/freezes/criticism by republican lawmakers and thus have a fraction of the inspectors they should.
The way republicans have functioned for a few decades (after realizing that legislatively trying to kill the ATF, EPA, OSHA, etc is unpopular) is to hamstring the budget for those departments, tie up leadership appointments as much as possible, and then in hearings shout about how ineffective the agencies are.
It's like starving someone and then criticizing them for being lazy and inactive.
The same technique is used to attack social services. WIC, a food stamp program for mothers with infants and children, requires yearly "certification" which involves in-person interviews at offices that few and far between, often not public transit accessible, and so on. How is a mother who is so poor she needs WIC (and thus may not even have a car) supposed to afford to take a day off from work and travel to an office so someone can verify that her child still exists?
Compare that to other government programs that benefit the wealthy and corporations. Do people writing off luxury cars, entire homes, and bizjets have to show up at a regional IRS office (annually) to have their records audited, proving that the luxury property is actually being used for business purposes and they're entitled to a writeoff (or being given use of said property without paying taxes on it)?
Does OSHA not require masks in these cases?