The Western Australian government has recently enacted work health and safety regulations governing the presence of crystalline silica in various materials, providing guidance on the safe use of some products, while banning others outright. These regulations respond to growing concerns over silicosis and other silica-related occupational illnesses, and place new analytical demands on both industry and analytical laboratories.
X-ray diffraction is the only measurement tool available to reliably quantify crystalline silica to demonstrate compliance. This presentation will discuss the regulations and their impact, our implementation of XRD-based testing to comply with Australian Border Force import requirements, and quality control regimes we have developed to give the best measurement accuracy and precision. Additionally, our investigation of compositional analysis will also be discussed.