Dust awareness campaign – ‘Stof? Pak’t aan!’Dust is known to contain hazardous substances, and is present in the agricultural sector and the processing industry. ‘Stof? Pak’t aan!’ used to be a project set-up for the agri- and horticulture sector, livestock farming, animal feed and processing industry.

In 2014 Stigas has taken over the project. Stigas is an organization that aims to help employers and employees in the agri- and horticultural sector to work in a healthy, safe and sustainable way. The main goal of ‘Stof? Pak’t aan!’ is to share knowledge about the health risks of working with dust and to encourage companies to take measures to prevent health problems.

Setting

Employees and employers in the agricultural sector and processing industry come across dust in the workplace at a daily basis. Often dust in these sectors contains harmful (e.g. endotoxins) and sometimes also carcinogenic (e.g. quartz dust) particles.

Solution

The project ‘Stof? Pak’t aan!’ has resulted in the website www.pakstofaan.nl. On this website employees and employers can find information about the specific risks their own sector faces and suitable solutions. Users can do the ‘Dust test’. There are scores for exposure to dust allocated to different actions. The score varies between 0 and 12, 12 means a very heavy dust burden and 0 is no dust burden. These scores are based on the length of the dust burden, the heaviness of the labor and the amount of dust present in an average company. The website gives interventions per action to reduce the exposure to dust.

Results

The website is a tool for employers and employees in the agricultural sector and processing industry that they can use to identify risks and subsequently take action. Since the founding in 2004 this tool has helped many employers and employees.