A Swedish hygienic limit value for respirable quartz dust has been 0.1 mg/m³ air since 1996. There is currently no EU limit value for quartz, but work is underway to develop a limit value. In the regulations on hygienic limit values (2018:1), quartz has been given a C label, which is a warning about quartz's carcinogenic properties. The EU currently lacks a cancer classification for quartz.
Certain provisions in the new regulations on quartz are subject to a penalty fee that has replaced prosecution and fines. Provisions in sections 9, 20, 26 and 27 are linked to penalty fees.
With regard to Section 7 and Section 20, the minimum fee is SEK 15,000 and the maximum fee is SEK 150,000.
For those who have 500 or more employees, the fee is SEK 150,000. For those with fewer than 500 employees, the penalty fee must be calculated as follows:
Fee = SEK 15,000 + (number of employees – 1) x SEK 271.
The sum must be rounded down to the nearest whole hundred.
Regarding section 27, the fee is 5,000 per occasion.
When you saw a 10cm x 10cm x 6cm flagstone, 45 grams of material disappears. Of the 45 grams, 20% consists of harmful quartz stone dust. This corresponds to 9 grams or 9,000,000 micrograms of quartz dust.
The Swedish limit values state that you may only inhale 100 micrograms of quartz dust per cubic meter of inhaled air, which corresponds to 1680 micrograms per working day.
When you cut a single 10cm x 10cm x 6cm ground stone, quartz stone dust is produced which corresponds to what you may be exposed to for 5357 days according to the Swedish limit values. That equates to almost 15 years if you work 5 days a week without taking any vacation!
All saws from iQ Power Tools pass the US limit values that allow 50 micrograms per m3 of inhaled air, what about your stone saw?
Here you can read the independent tests of the products from iQ Power Tools: https://iqpowertools.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/iQ-Power-Tools-Silica-Report-2018.pdf
https://www.av.se/halsa-och-sakerhet/kemiska-risker-och-luftfororeningar/kvarts-stendamm/#5
