Safety and Health Topics
Combustible Dust
In Focus
Hot Topics - 2008 Fact Sheet, Poster, and Other Products
Any combustible material (and some materials normally considered noncombustible) can burn rapidly when in a finely divided form. If such a dust is suspended in air in the right concentration, it can become explosive. The force from such an explosion can cause employee deaths, injuries, and destruction of entire buildings. Such incidents have killed scores of employees and injured hundreds over the past few decades.
Materials that may form combustible dust include metals (such as aluminum and magnesium), wood, coal, plastics, biosolids, sugar, paper, soap, dried blood, and certain textiles. In many accidents, employers and employees were unaware that a hazard even existed.
A combustible dust explosion hazard may exist in a variety of industries, including: food (e.g., candy, sugar, spice, starch, flour, feed), grain, tobacco, plastics, wood, paper, pulp, rubber, furniture, textiles, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, coal, metals (e.g., aluminum, chromium, iron, magnesium, and zinc), and fossil fuel power generation.
The following questions link to information relevant to combustible dust in the workplace.
Standards What standards apply?
OSHA | National Consensus
Additional Information What additional information is available?
Related Safety and Health Topics Pages | Other Resources
In Focus
Hot Topics
* Status Report on Combustible Dust --- National Emphasis Program. OSHA, (2009, October). Also available as a 68 KB PDF, 12 pages.
* Hazard Communication Guidance for Combustible Dusts. OSHA Publication 3371-08, (2009).
* Combustible Dust. OSHA Prerule Stage. OSHA is considering rulemaking to develop a combustible dust standard for general industry.
* Combustible Dust --- Does your company or firm process any of these products or materials in powdered form? OSHA Poster, (2008), 35 KB PDF*, 1 page.
* OSHA Reissues its Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program. OSHA Trade News Release, (2008, March 12).
o Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program. OSHA Directive CPL 03-00-008, (2008, March 11).
* Hazard Alert: Combustible Dust Explosions. OSHA Fact Sheet, (2008, March), 790 KB PDF*, 2 pages.
* Combustible Dust in Industry: Preventing and Mitigating the Effects of Fire and Explosion. OSHA Safety and Health Information Bulletin (SHIB) 07-31-2005, (2005, July 31). Also available as a 21 KB PDF, 9 pages.
