Cutting, grinding, and batching concrete releases respirable crystalline silica, one of OSHA’s most closely regulated airborne hazards.
Environmental Air Technology has helped industrial facilities engineer the right concrete dust collection solution since 1983. We don’t recommend a system until we understand your operation.
RCS is invisible during normal operations, but long-term exposure causes silicosis, an incurable lung disease, lung cancer, and COPD.
OSHA’s general industry silica standard (29 CFR 1910.1053) sets a permissible exposure limit of 50 µg/m³ and an action level of 25 µg/m³, averaged over an 8-hour workday. If you exceed the action level, you’re required to implement engineering controls, a written exposure control plan, and medical surveillance.
Dust controls at the point of source capture are OSHA’s required method.
Who’s at Risk in Your Facility?
Plant operators, grinding and cutting crews, maintenance staff handling dry cement dust, and anyone near conveyor transfers or silo vents all face real exposure risk.
A properly designed concrete dust collection system is the most direct way to protect your team and close your compliance gap.
Silica particles fall into the sub-micron range, and standard collectors often can’t capture them at the efficiency OSHA requires.
As MicroAir’s top distributor, we know which systems hold up in concrete and cement environments and which ones don’t.
Cartridge collectors with pulse-jet cleaning fit grinding stations and moderate dust loads well. Baghouse systems are built for the continuous, high-volume demands of ready-mix and batching plants.
For single workstations, a downdraft table or LEV hood often makes sense alongside a central system.
An undersized system fails at the source, and an oversized one wastes energy every shift it runs.
We calculate your actual CFM requirements based on your specific process, capture points, and duct layout before we ever make a recommendation.
We’ve helped ready-mix plants, masonry operations, concrete product manufacturers, and cement storage facilities get this right. Here’s how we approach each environment.
Batching plants generate dust at loading zones, silo vents, conveyor transfers, and truck load-out simultaneously.
Centralized baghouse systems or large pulse-jet collectors are typically the right fit, paired with silo vent filters to contain fugitive dust at filling and loading points.
These tasks carry the highest silica exposure potential of any operation in this industry.
On-tool extraction and point-of-source capture are OSHA’s required engineering controls, and high-efficiency filtration is commonly specified because of the fine particle sizes generated.
Fixed production lines generate consistent dust loads that suit centralized ducted systems with automated filter cleaning.
Coverage should include block-making equipment, cutting saws, finishing stations, and material handling points throughout the line.
Silo vent filters and bag filter systems prevent fugitive cement dust from escaping during filling, venting, and load-out.
Without the right equipment at these points, you’re creating compliance exposure and contaminating surrounding operations.
Here’s how it works.
Tell us about your facility and process.
Share where dust is generated, what you’re producing, and what your current setup looks like.
We assess your dust load, airflow needs, and space.
We evaluate your capture points and calculate the airflow your application actually requires.
We recommend the right system, sized correctly.
No guesswork, no undersized equipment, and no surprises after installation.
Environmental Air Technology is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, and serves facilities across the Midwest.
Our service area includes Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas (portions of), Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota.
We’re family-owned, and our team brings more than 80 years of combined experience to every project.
Every recommendation for a concrete dust collection or cement dust collection system starts with your process, your space, and your actual dust load. You’ll get a solution built for how you actually operate, backed by a team that’s responsive before, during, and after installation.
If you’re not confident your current system is keeping up, now’s the time to find out.
Call 800-873-3458 or submit a quote request, and we’ll follow up promptly.
Whether you’re evaluating concrete dust collection or silica dust collection systems for the first time, or replacing equipment that’s not performing, these are the questions we hear most often from facility and operations managers.
OSHA’s general industry silica standard (29 CFR 1910.1053) sets a permissible exposure limit of 50 µg/m³ and an action level of 25 µg/m³, averaged over an 8-hour workday.
If you exceed the action level, you’re required to implement engineering controls, a written exposure control plan, and medical surveillance.
It depends on your process and volume. Cartridge collectors fit grinding and moderate-volume applications, and baghouse systems handle high-volume continuous operations.
We’ll assess your facility before pointing you in any direction.
Portable units aren’t built for the filtration efficiency or airflow that industrial silica exposure requires.
A facility-grade concrete dust collection system sized to your actual dust load is what OSHA compliance demands.
Source capture at the point of generation is always more effective than chasing dust after it spreads.
Pair capture hoods with a properly sized system and eliminate dry sweeping to cut down on secondary dispersion.
Concrete dust covers sand, aggregate, and cement paste. Respirable crystalline silica is the finest fraction of that mix, small enough to reach deep into the lungs.
It’s what drives both the health risk and OSHA’s compliance requirements.
Dust escaping at capture points, filters blinding faster than expected, and worker complaints near dust-generating tasks are all signs your system may be undersized.
If any of those are happening in your facility, it’s worth having the system evaluated.
Yes. We handle system design, equipment supply, and installation for facilities across the Midwest.