Hazardous process
Grinding or glazing of metals
A hazardous process listed in the First Schedule to the Factories Act 1948 (s.2(cb)).
Typical industries: Metal grinding, polishing, buffing and glazing operations.
Principal hazards
- Metallic dust and fines (including toxic metals - Ni, Cr, Co)
- Abrasive-wheel (silica/silicon-carbide) dust
- Hand-arm vibration
- Noise; sparks and fire (combustible metal dusts)
Health effects
Pneumoconiosis and metal-specific toxicity, hard-metal/cobalt lung disease, hand-arm vibration syndrome, hearing loss, eye injury, dust-explosion risk.
Key engineering controls
LEV integrated with grinding/buffing machines, wet grinding where feasible; abrasive-wheel guarding; dust collection designed to avoid combustible-dust accumulation; vibration-reduced tooling; noise control.
PPE
- FFP2/FFP3 dust respirators
- Anti-vibration gloves
- Impact goggles/face shields
- Hearing protection
- Safety footwear
Statutory vs annotation: only the industry name is First-Schedule statutory text. The hazards, health effects, controls and PPE are standard occupational-hygiene practice, not statutory text.
This page is a statutory / occupational-health reference for factory Occupational Health Centres. It is not medical or legal advice. Verify against the current bare Act, Rules and your State amendments before acting.
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