Is Sand Blasting Banned in India? What the Rules Say

Is sand blasting banned in India?

In a factory, silica sand is. Indian factory law says sand or any other substance containing free silica may not be put into a blasting apparatus or used for blasting. Blasting itself is not banned. It is done with other abrasives, inside the controls the rules set out.

Flexihose sand blast hose: 175 PSI / 12 BAR working · 700 PSI / 48 BAR burst · 1/2" to 2" bore · DIN abrasion loss below 60 mm³ · Exceeds IS 5894

Is sand blasting banned in India? The short answer

Sand blasting is not illegal in India. Using silica sand as the abrasive inside a factory is prohibited. The Model Rules under the Factories Act, 1948 and the state Factories Rules that follow them all carry the same paragraph, headed Prohibition of sand blasting: sand or any other substance containing free silica shall not be introduced as an abrasive into any blasting apparatus and shall not be used for blasting (Model Rules under the Factories Act, 1948, Schedule VIII, paragraph 2).

The work itself is a declared dangerous operation, not a forbidden one. Model rule 120, made under section 87 of the Factories Act, 1948, lists cleaning or smoothing, roughening, etc. of articles by a jet of sand, metal shot or grit among the dangerous manufacturing processes. Declaring it dangerous is what lets the rules attach conditions to it: the enclosure, the ventilation, the protective helmet and the medical examinations set out below. The sand blasting process runs the same way whatever goes into the pot.

So the practical answer for an Indian works is short. Keep blasting. Change the abrasive, run it in an enclosure, and keep the records the Schedule asks for.

What the Factories Rules actually say

Factory safety rules are made by each state, so the binding text is your own state’s. Three were read in full for this guide. All three put blasting in Schedule VIII, all three head the paragraph Prohibition of sand blasting, and all three prohibit sand or any other substance containing free silica as the abrasive in the same words. What differs is the date of the text and what the surrounding paragraphs add.

One term does the work, and Schedule VIII never defines it. The Model Rules do define it one schedule along, in Schedule XIII on the manipulation of stone: a material containing free silica is a stone or any other solid material containing not less than 5% by weight of free silica. That threshold is written for a different schedule, so it is a guide to what the phrase means rather than a test the blasting paragraph itself sets. If the abrasive’s data sheet gives a free silica figure, that is the number to hold it against.

Read the Rajasthan amendment closely, because it is easy to over read. It was made under section 112 of the Factories Act, 1948, published in draft on 29 July 2025 and notified in final form on 27 October 2025. Its new paragraph 2A says that no pregnant woman, lactating mother, adolescent, child or young person may be employed in the schedule’s processes, and that before employing any other woman the occupier must ensure blasting shall be carried out in enclosed system, that local exhaust ventilation is installed, and that specialised protective equipment is given to her. That enclosure wording is written as a condition on employing a woman, not as a fresh general duty on every blasting job. The new paragraph 2B is general: regular safety training for all persons employed on the process.

Who the rules cover, and what they do not say

These are Factories Rules. They bite on premises that are factories under the Factories Act, 1948, and the occupier of the factory is the person they place the duty on. Three points follow from that, and all three are regularly got wrong.

The text is your state’s, not the Model’s. The Model Rules are a template that states adapt. Gujarat and Rajasthan match on the prohibition itself. They do not match everywhere, and the helmet air supply below is an example. Read your own state’s Schedule VIII before you rely on a number.

An exemption route exists. If the Chief Inspector is satisfied that free silica abrasive is necessary for a particular manufacture or process, other than a process incidental or supplemental to making metal castings, and that the process cannot be carried on without it, the Chief Inspector may exempt that factory by an order in writing, with the previous sanction of the State Government, for the period and on the conditions the order specifies. A copy of the order has to be displayed at the main entrance and where the blasting is carried on.

What replaced silica sand

Six abrasives do nearly all the work in Indian shops. Copper slag is the volume choice for structural steel. Garnet cuts cleanly and is reusable. Steel grit is angular and cuts a profile; steel shot is round and peens rather than cuts. Aluminium oxide is used where a hard, sharp abrasive is wanted. Glass bead leaves a satin finish without much cut. Which one suits which job, and what each does to the hose, is set out in our guide to shot, sand and grit blasting. There is more on each abrasive, including what OSHA states about the health risk of each, in our guide to choosing blasting media.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety puts substitution first among its controls, ahead of enclosure and ventilation: replace the media with a safer alternative, preferably one that can be delivered with water to cut dust (CCOHS, Abrasive Blasting (Sandblasting)). Indian factory law reaches the same place by prohibition rather than by preference.

Outside India the prohibition comes from a different source. On Saudi Aramco facilities, projects and construction sites, silica sand is prohibited by Aramco’s own safety instruction, which we set out in sandblasting sand in Saudi Arabia.

Enclosures, ventilation and breathing air

Changing the abrasive satisfies paragraph 2 and nothing else. The rest of Schedule VIII sets out the safety precautions for sand blasting: containing the dust, and protecting the person standing in it. In the Model Rules and in Gujarat’s Schedule VIII the requirements run in the same order.

The enclosure. Blasting is not to be done except in a blasting enclosure, and every door, aperture and joint is to be kept closed and air tight while blasting goes on inside. The enclosure is to be maintained so dust does not escape into the air of any room. Used abrasive that is to go round again has to pass through apparatus that separates it from dust and other particles first.

The ventilation. Every blasting enclosure needs a ventilating plant that extracts the dust by exhaust draught, effected by mechanical means, and the extracted dust must be disposed of so it cannot escape into the air of any room. The plant is to be kept in continuous operation whenever the enclosure is in use, whether or not blasting is actually taking place, and in a blasting chamber it runs even while someone is inside cleaning.

The inspections. A competent person inspects every blasting enclosure at least once in every week in which it is used for blasting. The enclosure, the apparatus connected with it and the ventilating plant are thoroughly examined at least once a month, and the ventilating plant is tested. The results go in a register in a form approved by the Chief Inspector, and any defect found is reported at once and removed without avoidable delay.

The helmet and its air. Everyone employed in a blasting chamber wears a protective helmet of a type approved by a certificate of the Chief Inspector, and does not take it off until outside the chamber. Each helmet carries a distinguishing mark for the person it is meant for, and nobody wears another person’s helmet unless it has since been thoroughly disinfected. On the air supply the two texts differ in the unit they print: the Model Rules require clean and not unreasonably cold air at a rate of not less 170 litres per minute, while Gujarat’s Schedule VIII requires it at not less than six cubic feet per minute. Take the figure from your own state’s text.

Flexihose makes hose. We do not make or supply blasting helmets, enclosures or ventilating plant, and nothing here approves a helmet type. That approval is the Chief Inspector’s.

Medical examinations and health records

Schedule VIII does not stop at equipment. It puts duties on the occupier for the health of the people doing the work, and these are the records an inspector asks for. Under the Model Rules the occupier employs a qualified medical practitioner for medical surveillance of the workers, whose employment is subject to the approval of the Chief Inspector of Factories, and keeps the record of examinations in a separate approved register.

On top of that, a Certifying Surgeon examines every worker within 15 days of first employment, and the examination includes pulmonary function tests and chest X-rays. No worker may be allowed to work after those 15 days unless the Certifying Surgeon has certified them fit. Re-examination follows at least once in every 12 calendar months, with pulmonary function tests and a chest X-ray once in every three years where the Certifying Surgeon thinks it appropriate. The certificate of fitness goes on Form 23 and the health register on Form 24, both kept available for the Inspector.

The reason for all of it is silicosis, which is incurable and which India has in quantity. After Rajasthan introduced its pneumoconiosis policy in 2019, 23,436 cases of silicosis were diagnosed out of 192,143 people screened, in a population of stone carving and mining workers rather than blasting operators (Rupani, Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology, 2023). CCOHS puts the blasting risk plainly: inhaling silica sand media can result in silicosis and lung cancer.

PPE for sand blasting

Schedule VIII names three items and then tells you how to look after them. Suitable gauntlets and overalls go to everyone blasting or assisting at blasting, and they wear them while so engaged. Storage for the helmet, gauntlets and overalls sits outside and conveniently near the enclosure, and is kept clean. Everything is kept in good condition and, so far as is reasonably practicable, cleaned on every weekday on which it is used. One line in that paragraph is worth pinning above the bench: compressed air shall not be used for removing dust from any clothing. Vacuum cleaners are used instead, wherever practicable.

CCOHS lists the wider set for an operator, and its respiratory recommendation is more specific than the Schedule’s:

• An airline supplied air respirator with a positive pressure blasting helmet, sold in India as a blasting hood
• Hearing protection, earplugs or earmuffs
• Eye and face protection
• Abrasion resistant gloves, leather recommended
• Coveralls or aprons
• Safety footwear

Age limits come with the PPE. No person under 18 may be employed in blasting, in assisting at blasting, in a blasting chamber, or in cleaning the apparatus, enclosure or ventilating plant. No person under 18 may work regularly within twenty feet of a blasting enclosure unless the enclosure is in a room and they are outside it, effectively separated from the dust.

Blast hose checks before every shift

The Schedule puts the enclosure and the ventilating plant on a weekly and monthly cycle. The hose is the part between them and the operator, it carries the abrasive at pressure, and it is the part that wears from the inside where nobody looks. This list is ours, not a legal requirement. It takes about two minutes.

1. Walk the cover. Run a hand along the full length for cuts, blisters and soft spots. A soft patch means the lining has gone thin underneath it.
2. Check every coupling. Couplings tight, pins or safety clips in place, gaskets present and not perished. A coupling that turns by hand is not secure.
3. Fit the whip checks. One across every hose to hose joint and at the pot. What they are for is covered in our guide to the parts of a blast line.
4. Check the earthing. The assembly is earthed so static built up by abrasive moving through the hose has a path away. The same guide explains why the whole line is bonded.
5. Match the bore to the nozzle. An undersized hose starves the nozzle and costs pressure over the run. The ratio to hold is in our guide to sizing the compressor and nozzle.
6. Test the deadman. Release it and the flow stops. If it sticks, the line does not run that shift.
7. Look at the run itself. No kinks, no tight bends at the pot, nothing crushed under a wheel or a plate.

What the hose has to survive is set by what is now in the pot. Copper slag, garnet and steel grit are harder on a lining than sand was. Flexihose India (FLEXI HOSE), a brand of Vardhman Hydraulic Hoses Pvt. Ltd., Bhiwadi, Rajasthan, builds its sand blast hose to exceed IS 5894, with an extra thick seamless rubber lining free from mineral filler, high tenacity synthetic yarn braids and a cover resistant to abrasion, ozone and weather. It works at 175 PSI / 12 BAR with a burst of 700 PSI / 48 BAR, in bores from 1/2" to 2" (12.00 to 50.00 mm), from -40 C to +75 C, with DIN abrasion loss below 60 mm³ and a copper element that reduces static build-up. Standard coil length is 40 m. The full size table is on our sand blasting hose page.

It exceeds IS 5894 and is not BIS licensed to it. That distinction matters when a tender asks for the licence number, so it is better read here than discovered at document check. The document these checks belong in is covered in our method statement for blasting and painting.

A job safety analysis (JSA) for blasting

A job safety analysis breaks the work into steps, names the hazard in each and writes down the control. This is a starting outline for a blasting job in a factory. Where a control comes from the Schedule, that is marked; the rest is practice.

Read this next to the sand blasting process if you are writing the method statement rather than working the nozzle.

Changed your abrasive? Check the hose is still right for it

Tell us the abrasive, the nozzle size and the length of run, and we will recommend the bore and send a quote.