Dust Mitigation Safety Course – Vital for Tissue Makers

Dust mitigation in tissue production might sound like a somewhat dull subject, however, add the words explosion, fire, injuries and death and it suddenly becomes extremely interesting. In fact, far from a dull subject, mitigating and managing dust in a tissue mill is a vital activity for the health and safety of personnel and maintaining maximum efficiency and uptime. To help deal with what is an increasing threat, TAPPISAFE recently launched a dedicated online safety course for dust mitigation in tissue mills and beyond.

The statistics speak for themselves; according to TAPPI’s Dust Mitigation Committee over the last 20 years there have been 200 dust explosions, 600 injuries and 100 fatalities. Bud Chase, VP Tissue at EDT, and founder of TAPPI’s Dust Mitigation Committee says, “Throughout my whole career I have seen numerous fires, they are common at tissue mills and are fuelled by the build-up of dust from the tissue making process. In fact, some large tissue producers with many mill sites can have a fire somewhere every single day due fuelled by dust buildup. This is why we decided to focus on dust mitigation and in 2020 we formed the dedicated committee at TAPPI.”

Chase talks about his own experience of what can happen at a tissue mill, “I first became interested in dust mitigation early on in my career when as a shift supervisor fresh out of college I witnessed a fire at a mill I was working at, and it turned out to be quite an event as there was asbestos involved. The speed at which the fire spread and engulfed the entire paper machine room was incredible. We fought the fire for hours and, at one point there were over 80 firefighters at the mill. This is a serious issue in our industry.”

More Softness Means More Dust – A Growing Challenge

The Dust Mitigation Committee has subsequently grown to over 40 members from all areas of the industry including a full gamut of producers and suppliers. Alfredo Sarli, Air Systems Applications Specialist at Valmet, has been the chair of the committee since day one. He says, “I decided to join and lead the committee due to my work in the area of Yankee Dryers, and this topic is very pertinent to us at Valmet as we produce engineered solutions for dust mitigation at mills. “

“There has been a lot of traction with this topic at TAPPI, and we have seen an unprecedented amount of sign-ups for the committee, signalling that dust mitigation is of growing importance in the tissue industry. Added to this, insurance companies are looking for mills to increase control of fire risks.”

One of the main reasons for the growing interest in the mitigation of dust at tissue mills is due to the improving quality of tissue, and in particular increased softness of the final product. Chase explains, “Consumers and therefore manufacturers want softer and softer products that unfortunately cause more dust in the manufacturing process, so this situation is not going to get better or self-correct. We must find ways to deal with the problem, which means attacking it from all angles, reducing the dust where we can, as well as dealing with the dust that we can’t eliminate. This is where having a team of experts on the committee comes in.”

Sarli adds, “Increased softness is definitely the trend, and we are in a market where manufacturers are trying to make better and better quality tissue. Unfortunately, dust is a necessary evil to achieve these improved quality aims. This is why dust mitigation has become such an important issue.”

Tappisafe 101 Dust Mitigation Safety Course – Learning The Basics

To tackle this growing challenge, earlier this year TAPPISAFE launched a 45-minute training and awareness course for students - as well as being open to all interested parties from the tissue industry - to engage in a basic overview of dust mitigation and gain basic understanding of how dust forms and how to deal with it when it has formed.

“The committee went into collaboration on ideas for the course and we put together an initial package that hit all the right notes,” says Sarli. “It could have been a lot deeper in its content, but we thought, as a start, it would be ideal to have the basics and not overwhelm the audience. There is obviously a lot more scope we can cover in future courses.”

“The building blocks of the course revolve around how to make less dust, and how to deal with the dust we have.”

Lisa Dalrymple TAPPISAFE Director comments on the success of the course so far, “The course is getting a lot of interest as it is such an important issue in the industry. It is also put together by our very well-respected Dust Mitigation Committee who have basically written the book on this subject and are happy to share their deep knowledge. In fact, we can already see by the attention this course is getting that we will have deeper dive courses in the future.

Around 70 students and interested parties have already signed up for the course and TAPPISAFE is in the process of reviewing the first entries. Dalrymple concludes, “The course cost is just $25, is only 45 minutes long and can be completed during a lunch break.”

To find out more about the TAPPISAFE 101 Dust Mitigation Safety Course visit https://tappisafe.org/tappisafe-101-dust-mitigation/. If you would like to participate in a focus group committee and are interested in educating and raising safety awareness, please contact Lisa Dalrymple, TAPPISAFE Director: ldalrymple@tappi.org to ask how you can be an SME.

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