Chalk Dust - Long Term Health Impact

[ferret]

You can find the information you need in the msds.
Magnesium Carbonate
- OSHA Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL):
15 mg/m3 total dust, 5 mg/m3 respirable fraction for nuisance dusts.

PEL is based on an 8 hour time weighted average so you would have to account for that in any monitoring.

 

[tomtom]

Mine was from IKEA - about £30 or so. Gives the reading and has a green/amber/yellow rating as well. Like Pete its interesting how high it gets if you burn something frying.

I was going to type what Pete has said - that if you visit a wall once or twice a week on average its not likely to be an issue. But if you work in a wall I would be more concerned. I notice some walls box off the desk/shop area (glass walls) probably to keep their stock dust free - but some might have half an eye on their staffs long term wellbeing.

 

[Liamhutch89]

Thanks Pete and Ferret. Very useful.

At fear of being labeled as having health anxiety, that's potentially another rabbit hole to go down (regarding the cooking exposure).

I will do some testing.

 

[user 28238]

If you really want to get the health anxiety fired up I’d look into micro and milliplastics they keep finding in human bodies opcorn:

 

[JamieG]

I'm just going to throw this cat among the pigeons. Shoe rubber exposure!!! :worms: ;D

https://chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/650306c2b338ec988a77c900

 

[Ballsofcottonwool]

I imagine climbing walls are also full of airborne microplastics worn off the holds.