Five Significantly Important Reasons Why Michigan High Ceiling Dusting Matters

Most Michigan industrial facilities produce some sort of dust during the manufacturing process. It’s easy to see dust or dirt at eye level, but when looking up, high surfaces may appear to be clean.  But dust, dirt, grease, and other debris are common to find on the ceiling and rafters of many manufacturing and production facilities. While it seems that high surface dust isn’t hurting anything, there are several reasons why Michigan high ceiling dusting really matters.

The ceiling is composed of rafters, pipes and ductwork. In addition, dirt and dust travels through the air and lands on these high surfaces, where they tend to accumulate quickly. Since, there areas are not reachable by hand or from the ground in most isntances, the tend not to get properly cleaned regularly.

Five Significantly Important Reasons Why Michigan High Ceiling Dusting Matters

1. HVAC System

According to the EPA, a small buildup of just 0.42″ of dirt on a heating or cooling coil can result in a decrease of efficiency of around 21%. Also, dirty ductwork can cause filters to get dirty quickly and produce more stress on the air handler resulting in higher energy costs. In addition, blockages in reheat coils, mixing boxes, VAV boxes and other terminal boxes found in commercial HVAC systems can also restrict the airflow. So, if your Michigan facility’s ducts have not been properly cleaned and the system is running less efficiently it can result in poor indoor air quality, which can cause employees to become ill.

Cleaning your Michigan facility’s ductwork is a step inthe right direction for removing airborne contaminants and allergens out of the air they breathe. Duct cleaning is an important part of keeping an environment safe and healthy for everyone that enters through your doors.

2. Dust And Dirt Falling

Dust on the floor is a sign that there is dust elsewhere in the building, including high up and out-of-sight areas. When the dust from high surfaces, such as rafters and pipes is disturbed from vibrations and/or air movement, it can fall down onto machinery and production equipment. This can cause numerous quality control problems and even damage the machinery.

However, regular Michigan high ceiling dusting helps to removes dust, dirt, grease, and other materials commonly found on the high surfaces of manufacturing and production facilities.

3. Employee Health Risks

Not only do dirty ductwork cause the HVAC system to run less efficiently, but they are the perfect breeding ground for mites, mold, bacteria, viruses, and other poisons that could contribute to having several eomployees ill at one time. Bacteria and viruses will spread throughout the building making your staff sick.

Dust can also create a slipping hazard when it collects on walking surfaces; the small particles reduce the traction that people are used to when walking in a building. Slips are one of the main causes of workplace injury, and within those injuries dust is one of the main causes of those slips.

4. Michigan Combustible Dust Explosion

As an industrial facility, you produce a large amount of dust, and over time that dust collects on machinery, floors, and on high surfaces. Unfortunately, many Michigan facilities only think about cleaning areas that are visible and certain types of dusts can pose a fire hazard when they collect in large enough areas. Several secondary explosions in factories have been caused by an explosive dust cloud forming when dust is knocked down from these high surfaces.

Many types of Michigan dust become explosive under the right conditions, and there have been numerous cases of uncleaned dust coming into contact with an ignition source and exploding. The dust explosion pentagon has been created to explain how these explosions form and how to prevent them, and OSHA and the NFPA have been developing new codes to help combat this issue.

5. OSHA Fines

OSHA has been paying attention to the dangers that dust in the workplace can create and has been cracking down on companies that aren’t following housekeeping rules. The Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program was created by OSHA to deal with this issue, and has already cited almost five thousand businesses for dust accumulations, with fines ranging from thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands.