Skip to content
STEELTOETOOLS

OSHA Silica Table 1 Task Lookup

Table 1 of the OSHA silica standard names eighteen construction tasks and, for each one, the engineering control, the work practice and the respirator required. Pick your task, where it is done and how long the crew spends on Table 1 tasks in total, and this page returns the specified method in OSHA's own words along with the required assigned protection factor. It also tells you when Table 1 stops covering you and paragraph (d) takes over.

The eighteen equipment/task entries of Table 1, 29 CFR 1926.1153(c).
Some Table 1 entries offer two methods joined by OR. Where an entry has only one, the choice is ignored.
Several entries change the required respirator between outdoors and indoors or an enclosed area, and four entries apply outdoors only.
1926.1153(c)(3): where an employee performs more than one Table 1 task in a shift, the four hours is the combined total of all of them — and it sets the respirator column for every task.
Water actually running at the blade, dust collector on and filtered as specified, tool operated and maintained per the manufacturer. Anything less and Table 1 stops covering the task.

Results are estimates for planning purposes and do not replace a competent person's evaluation or an engineer's design. Follow the OSHA standards that apply to your work and your employer's written program.

How Table 1 works

29 CFR 1926.1153 gives construction employers two routes to compliance. Table 1, in paragraph (c), names eighteen equipment/task entries and, for each, the engineering control, the work practice and the respirator to use. Paragraph (c)(1) is the bargain: “For each employee engaged in a task identified on Table 1, the employer shall fully and properly implement the engineering controls, work practices, and respiratory protection specified for the task on Table 1, unless the employer assesses and limits the exposure of the employee to respirable crystalline silica in accordance with paragraph (d) of this section.”

Do that, and you skip the exposure assessment for those tasks. Paragraph (e)(3) adds that you are then treated as complying with the respirator selection requirements of 29 CFR 1910.134(d)(1)(iii) and (d)(3) for silica. Fall short of any element of the specified method and Table 1 stops applying: paragraph (d) takes over, with the 50 µg/m³ permissible exposure limit as an 8-hour TWA and an exposure assessment through the performance option or the scheduled monitoring option.

The four hours is a shift total, not a task total. 1926.1153(c)(3): where an employee performs more than one task on Table 1 during a shift and the combined duration of all of them is more than four hours, the respirator specified for more than four hours per shift applies to every one of those tasks. Two hours of sawing plus three hours of chipping is five hours of Table 1 work.

What rides along with every Table 1 method

Paragraph (c)(2) attaches conditions to the whole table:

  • Indoors or in an enclosed area — provide a means of exhaust as needed to minimize the accumulation of visible airborne dust.
  • Wet methods — apply water at flow rates sufficient to minimize the release of visible dust. A trickle at the blade is not a wet method.
  • Enclosed cab or booth — kept as free as practicable from settled dust; door seals and closing mechanisms working properly; gaskets and seals in good condition; under positive pressure through continuous delivery of fresh air; intake air filtered at 95% efficiency in the 0.3–10.0 µm range (MERV-16 or better); and heating and cooling capabilities.

And outside the table entirely: the written exposure control plan of paragraph (g), the housekeeping prohibitions of (f), hazard communication and training under (i), medical surveillance under (h) for anyone required to wear a respirator 30 or more days a year, and recordkeeping under (j).

The numbers that matter

Key figures of 29 CFR 1926.1153
FigureValueParagraph
Scope threshold — below this under any foreseeable conditions, the standard does not apply25 µg/m³, 8-hour TWA(a)
Action level25 µg/m³, 8-hour TWA(b)
Permissible exposure limit (PEL)50 µg/m³, 8-hour TWA(d)(1)
Table 1 respirator column switch4 hours, all Table 1 tasks combined(c)(3)
Medical surveillance triggerRespirator required 30 or more days per year(h)(1)(i)
HEPA filterAt least 99.97% efficient on 0.3 µm mono-dispersed particles(b)
Dust collector filter, most entries99% or greater efficiencyTable 1
Grinder dust collector airflow25 cfm or greater per inch of wheel diameterTable 1 (xi), (xii)

Assigned protection factors come from Table 1 of 29 CFR 1910.134: an APF 10 is a half-mask air-purifying respirator, and an APF 25 is a powered air-purifying respirator with a loose-fitting facepiece or hood, or a supplied-air respirator in that class. In Table 1 of the silica standard, only tuckpointing for more than four hours per shift calls for APF 25. Whenever a respirator is required, 1926.1153(e)(2) requires a full respiratory protection program under 1910.134 — written program, fit testing, medical evaluation and training.

Table 1 is a construction rule. General industry and maritime work under 29 CFR 1910.1053, which shares the 50 and 25 µg/m³ figures but has no table of specified methods.

How it's calculated

Respirator required
Table 1 entry + location + total Table 1 hours this shift → specified controls and minimum APF
The table is a lookup, not a calculation: the values returned are the ones printed in 29 CFR 1926.1153 Table 1.
The four-hour rule
total duration of all Table 1 tasks combined > 4 h → the '>4 hours/shift' column applies to every task
29 CFR 1926.1153(c)(3), word for word. Two hours of sawing plus three hours of chipping is five hours for this purpose.

Frequently asked questions

It is the list of eighteen construction equipment/task entries in 29 CFR 1926.1153(c) for which OSHA has already worked out an acceptable control. For each task the table gives the engineering control and work practice to use, and the respiratory protection required for four hours or less per shift and for more than four hours per shift. Under (c)(1), an employer who fully and properly implements the specified method for a task does not have to assess exposures for that task under paragraph (d).

For the tasks you cover that way, yes — that is the entire point of the table. 1926.1153(c)(1) makes Table 1 an alternative to the exposure assessment of paragraph (d), and (e)(3) adds that full and proper implementation is treated as compliance with the respirator selection requirements of 29 CFR 1910.134(d)(1)(iii) and (d)(3) for silica. It does not excuse you from the written exposure control plan at (g), from housekeeping at (f), from hazard communication and training at (i), or from medical surveillance at (h).

It is the total, not the task. 1926.1153(c)(3): where an employee performs more than one task on Table 1 during a shift and the combined duration of all of them is more than four hours, the required respiratory protection for each task is the one specified for more than four hours per shift. Two hours cutting block and three hours chipping is five hours of Table 1 work, and both tasks land in the right-hand column. Crews that read the table task by task get this wrong constantly.

One: handheld grinders for mortar removal — tuckpointing — entry (xi), and only for more than four hours per shift. At four hours or less it is APF 10. Every other respirator requirement in Table 1 is either none or APF 10. An APF 25 means a powered air-purifying respirator with a loose-fitting facepiece or hood, or a supplied-air respirator in that class, under Table 1 of 29 CFR 1910.134.

Table 1 stops covering the task. 1926.1153(c)(1) grants the alternative only where the employer fully and properly implements the engineering controls, work practices and respiratory protection specified — and (d) opens with 'for tasks not listed in Table 1, or where the employer does not fully and properly implement' the specified method. From that point you are on the paragraph (d) route: assess the exposure with the performance option or the scheduled monitoring option, use engineering and work practice controls to get to or below the 50 µg/m³ PEL, and supplement with respirators where controls are not sufficient.

Four entries carry a 'for tasks performed outdoors only' restriction: (iii) handheld power saws for cutting fiber-cement board, (v) drivable saws, (viii) dowel drilling rigs for concrete, and the water-fed method of (xii) handheld grinders for uses other than mortar removal. Indoors or in an enclosed area those entries have no Table 1 method, so paragraph (d) applies. Several other entries — (ii), (iv), (x) and the dust-collection method of (xii) — do work indoors, but require a higher level of respiratory protection there.

1926.1153(c)(2). For tasks performed indoors or in enclosed areas, provide a means of exhaust as needed to minimize the accumulation of visible airborne dust. For wet methods, apply water at flow rates sufficient to minimize the release of visible dust. And where the method uses an enclosed cab or booth, that cab or booth must be kept as free as practicable from settled dust, have door seals and closing mechanisms that work properly, have gaskets and seals in good condition, be under positive pressure through continuous delivery of fresh air, have intake air filtered at 95% efficiency in the 0.3-10.0 µm range (MERV-16 or better), and have heating and cooling capabilities.

Yes. Paragraph (g) is not conditioned on which route you take. The plan must describe the tasks that involve exposure, the engineering controls, work practices and respiratory protection used for each, the housekeeping measures and the procedures restricting access — and a competent person must be designated to make frequent and regular inspections to implement it. Build one with the silica exposure control plan generator.

No. Table 1 lives in 1926.1153, the construction standard. General industry and maritime are covered by 29 CFR 1910.1053, which has the same 50 µg/m³ PEL and 25 µg/m³ action level but no equivalent table of specified methods — there, exposure assessment is the route.

Sources & references

Content checked against these sources — last reviewed August 28, 2026.

By — Editorial team of SteelToeTools.com (published by LSEA SAS) Updated v1