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Safety and Health Topics |
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| Combustible Dust |
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In Focus |
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Any combustible material (and some materials normally
considered noncombustible) can burn rapidly when in a finely divided form. If
such a dust is suspended in air in the right concentration, it can become
explosive. The force from such an explosion can cause employee deaths, injuries,
and destruction of entire buildings. Such incidents have killed scores of employees
and injured hundreds over the past few decades.
Materials that may form combustible dust include metals (such as aluminum and
magnesium), wood, coal, plastics, biosolids, sugar, paper, soap, dried blood,
and certain textiles. In many accidents, employers and employees were unaware
that a hazard even existed.
A combustible dust explosion hazard may exist in a variety of industries,
including: food (e.g., candy, sugar, spice, starch, flour, feed), grain,
tobacco, plastics, wood, paper, pulp, rubber, furniture, textiles, pesticides,
pharmaceuticals, dyes, coal, metals (e.g., aluminum, chromium, iron, magnesium,
and zinc), and fossil fuel power generation.
The following questions link to information relevant to combustible dust in the workplace.
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What standards apply?
OSHA | National Consensus |
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What additional information is available?
Related Safety and Health Topics Pages | Other Resources |
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In Focus |
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Hot Topics
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Combustible Dust --- Does your company or firm process any of these products
or materials in powdered form? OSHA Poster, (2008), 35 KB
PDF, 1 page.
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OSHA Reissues its Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program. OSHA
Trade News Release, (2008, March 12).
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Hazard Alert: Combustible Dust Explosions. OSHA Fact Sheet, (2008, March), 790 KB
PDF, 2 pages.
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Combustible Dust in Industry: Preventing and Mitigating the Effects of Fire
and Explosions. OSHA Safety and Health Information Bulletin (SHIB)
07-31-2005, (2005,
July 31). Also available as a 21 KB
PDF, 9 pages.
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