Beetle dust in BC a cause for industry concernFriday 4 May 2012 Sawmill explosions in the B.C. Interior have thrown the province’s forest industry into turmoil, raising concerns that the mountain pine beetle’s damage to the sector may be entering a new and more deadly phase. The potential for dry beetle-killed wood to pose a safety hazard comes at a time when the industry is struggling to cope with pine beetle impact.“We are in new territory,” said John Allan, president of the B.C. Council of Forest Industries. “These two mills blew up. They just didn’t catch fire. “The beetle has infected every aspect of the business,” Allan said Thursday. WorkSafeBC has issued an order that all B.C. sawmills conduct a complete inspection for dust buildup. The industry also commissioned new research to determine what is a safe level of dust in sawmills after the two explosions that killed four people. Up until now, the safety focus on sawdust has been only on the hazards of breathing it in. Forest industry officials have also asked researchers based at the University of British Columbia to determine what role aging pine beetle wood, and the fine dust it produces when milled, might have played in the two recent explosions at sawmills in northern B.C. For more information, click here |
Copyright 2004-2024 © Innovatek Ltd. All rights reserved. |