Marginally studio related: silica dust

[Kelly in AK]

A friendly reminder to keep the studio clean showed up in my local news. Potters aren’t the only ones who have to worry about silicosis, apparently bus drivers in Anchorage do too:

https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2023/06/22/anchorage-fined-nearly-80000-silica-dust-exposure-municipality-buses/

[Jeff Longtin]

Having worked in a pottery shop, where lots of young people are convinced that one day in a pottery shop exposes one to a lifetime of silicosis, I'll offer this thought:

Did you see the interview with the "industrial hygienist"? Did you see how cluttered his office is? Do you think a cluttered office is cleaned regularly?

I think the hygienist might want to clean his office before he's interviewed on tv again. 

That said, I had no idea "glacier silt" is actually a thing. (I presume its a form of salt?) Makes me wonder if "road salt" used all over the US is also creating a similar problem? 

I appreciate the posting.

[Rae Reich]

Seems like wetting and scraping the roads when “salting season” is over would alleviate the problem for almost everyone without redistributing dust through the air. And maybe come up with a less hazardous treatment in future. Good luck, Alaska <3 

Edited June 27, 2023 by Rae Reich

[Callie Beller Diesel]

I assume they’re using glacier grit because it’s locally available, but surely there must be a larger mesh size available. I dunno. 

@Jeff Longtin road salt used by itself is pretty caustic, and presents issues for roadside plants, as well as issues of it getting into waterways. Lots of municipalities will mix grit with salt to reduce the amount of salt used and increase traction. The mix will vary with climate and whatever gravel source is available locally. The stuff my city uses is like pea gravel, and it’s nowhere near that dusty. That said, our municipality does do as Rae mentioned, and they send out water trucks and street sweepers in the spring. Partly to keep the dust down, partly to keep it out of the storm drains, and partly to reclaim some of the road sand to reuse the next year.  

 

[Min]

Quick Google search turns up Glacial Silt is also called Glacial Flour or Rock Flour which is made from tiny clay sized particles of very finely ground particles of rock.  Particles of the Glacial Silt/flour can be so small that will suspend in water, this is what makes some glacial lakes look such a beautiful shade of turquoise. Makes sense that it is loaded with silica. Nothing at all like rock salt which is well, salt. 

[Russ]

Stories like that are somewhat fear-mongering if you ask me..  try living in the dusty desert environment without breathing it in for decades and decades .  we have no higher incidence of silicosis than any other part of the country or the world for that matter.

A nothing burger story. IMHO

[Kelly in AK]

Anchorage is at the point where two giant glacial drainages meet. Our gravel pits, hence sand supply, are loaded (intercalated, geology not calendar) with silt, which is just the sand ground to such a fine mesh as to be reclassified as silt. In other places the silt is in lenses with clay and sand, which makes picking out clay tricky because they’re all the same color, made of the same stuff!

So, bless our road crews, they dig up sand and spread it ‘round to keep us from crashing our cars, but the silt and clay get kicked up in spring. They’re not literally spreading silt on the roads. It’s always been a dusty paradise here, long before sanding intersections was common practice. Apparently buses here have a knack for concentrating the dust. 

@Russ, I have to chuckle at your reaction because that was a little bit my point. Driving a bus may be more dangerous to your lungs than having a clay studio! Mine is certainly no model of a “free silica free” environment. I’ll breathe more free silica on a windy summer day outside than through the cold months of winter plugging away in my studio. Most of us will die of something else long before silicosis is a problem. Still though, no reason to breathe more dust than you have to.

I’ll confess, those final videos of Richard Batterham haunt me.