Manipulation of Stone or Any Other Material Containing Free Silica
1. Application. - This schedule shall apply to all factories or parts of Factories in which manipulation of stone or any other material containing free silica is carried on.
2. Definitions. - For the purpose of this Schedule ---
(a) “manipulation” means crushing, breaking, chipping, dressing, grinding, sieving, mixing, grinding or handling of stone or any other material containing free silica or any other operation involving such stone or material;
(b) “Stone or any other material containing free silica” means a stone or any other solid material containing not less than five per cent. by weight of free silica.
3. Precaution in manipulation. - No manipulation shall be carried out in a factory or part of a factory unless one or more of the following measures, namely : -
(a) damping the stone or other material being processed,
(b) providing water spray,
(c) enclosing the process,
(d) isolating the process, and
(e) providing localised exhaust ventilation :
are adopted so as to effectively control the dust in any place in the factory where any person is employed, at a level equal to, or below the maximum permissible level for silica dust as laid down in table to appended to rule 102-A:
Provided that such measures as above said are not necessary if the process operation itself is such that the level of dust created and prevailing does not exceed the permissible level referred to.
4. Maintenance of floors. - (1) All floors or places fine dust is likely to settle on and whereon any person has to work or pass shall be of impervious material and maintained in such condition that they can be thoroughly cleaned by a moist method which would prevent dust being airborne in the process of cleaning.
(2) The surface of every floor of every workroom or place where any work is carried on or where any person has to pass during the course of his work, shall be cleaned of dust once at least during each shift after being sprayed with water or by any other suitable method so as to prevent dust being airborne on the process of cleaning.
5. Prohibition relating young persons. - No young person shall be employed or permitted to work in any of the operations involving manipulation or at any place where such operations are carried on.
6. Medical facilities and records of examinations and tests. - (1) The occupier of every factory to which the schedule applies, shall -
(a) employ a qualified medical officer for medical surveillance of the workers employed therein whose employment shall be subject to the approval of the Chief Inspector of Factories; and
(b) provide to the said medical officer all the necessary facilities for purpose referred to in clause (a).
(2) The record of medical examination and appropriate tests carried out by the said medical officer shall be maintained in a separate register approved by the Chief Inspector of Factories, which shall be kept readily available for inspection by the Inspector.
7. Medical examination by Certifying Surgeon. - (1) Every worker employed in the processes specified in paragraph 1, shall be examined by a Certifying Surgeon within 15 days of his first employment. Such medical examination shall include pulmonary function tests and chest X-ray, No worker shall be allowed to work after 15 days of first employment unless he is certified fir for such employment by the Certifying Surgeon.
(2) Every worker employed in the said processes shall be examined by a Certifying Surgeon at least once in every twelve months. Such examination shall, wherever the Certifying Surgeon considers appropriate, include all the tests as specified in sub-paragraph (1) except chest X-ray which will be once in years.
(3) The Certifying Surgeon after examining a worker shall issue a Certificate of Fitness in Form 27. The record of re-examinations carried out shall be entered in the Certificate and the Certificate shall be kept in the custody of the Manager of the Factory. The record of each examination carried out under sub-paragraph (1) and (2), including the nature and the result of the tests shall also be entered by the Certifying Surgeon in a health register in Form 17.
(4) The Certificate of Fitness and the health register shall be kept readily available for inspection by the Inspector.
(5) If at any time the Certifying Surgeon is of opinion that a worker is no longer fit for employment in the said processes on the ground that continuance therein would involve special danger to the health of the worker, he shall make a record of his findings in the said certificate and the health register. The entry of his findings in these documents should also include the period for which he considers that the said person is unfit for work in the said process. The person so suspended from the process being unfit for that processes shall be provided with alternate placement facilities by factory management unless he is fully incapacitated in the opinion of the Certifying Surgeon, in that case the person affected shall be suitably rehabilitated.
(6) No person who has been-found unfit to work as said in sub-paragraph (5) above shall be re-employed or permitted to work in the said processes unless the Certifying Surgeon, after further examination, again certifies him fit for employment in these processes.
8. Exemptions. - If in respect of any factory, the Chief Inspector is satisfied that owing to the except exceptional circumstances or in frequency of the processes or for any other reason, all or any of the provisions of this schedule is not necessary for protection of the workers in the factory, the Chief Inspector may be a certificate in writing, which he may in his discretion revoke at any time, exempt such factory from all or any of such provisions subject to such conditions, if any, as he may specify therein.