Cement flammability?

Can anyone lead me in the direction, or link the article, to prove that cement in a fine powder either in the air or by itself can be/is flammable and/or explosive. The reason I ask this is because there is a project that requires touch cutting a silo and there is a fine cement powder layer on the silo and its surroundings, and I advised it to be cleaned before cutting, but the weld/cut team seems to think that it is safe for the fact that it is just cement... are they right or will it explode. the silo is also filled with 15 tons of fine cement powder... where the slag will fall...

Answer:
You are correct in think that dusts pose a fire/explosion hazard but not in the case of cement. Check out the attached MSDS which states no explosion hazard.

You do have respritory hazarads with air born dusts and skin contact iritant issue.

If dust is being knocked loose as the workers are cutting metal there is also a risk of getting dust in the eyes as well.

I would recommend that work be carried out so as to not produce airborne dust. If this is not possible then cleaning should be performed in such a manner so as to not produce airborne dust (water spray) or by trained workers in proper PPE (personal Protection Equipment)

I think powdered cement is toxic but not flammable. Why don't you contact your local cement company or you might even call the local fire department they would know what is flammable for sure!

I think that you are a little off base here. The whole premise that you are reffering to is that when a semiflammible substanse is refined into a powder, it will become very flammible due to the increased surface area. Cement is not flammible so therefore the powder from cement will not be flammible either. . .as far as an explosion. . .it won't happen but, I would recommend cleaning the building anyway in order to spare your equipment a little bit of wear. . .fine particles of cement can cause more damage to cutting equipment than a big block of cement. . .thanks :)

Mythbusters did that one, check discoverychannel.com

It seems only organic or synthetic organic dust will cause a dust eplosion. Since cement is neither of those there is no danger.

Cement powder is not flammable or explosive. If it were, there would be a hazardous material symbol on the silo. There are other reasons to clean up the dust, such as the fact that breathing the dust may be hazardous and that it may be required by law.

If they cut into the silo, then slag may contaminate the cement.

Your best bet is to do a search on Material Safety Data Sheet Cement.

You have to have a combustable material in a finely ground form to produce an explosion. Cement dust is inorganic, and non-combustable therefore you are not at risk of the silo exploding unless you fill it with raw gas from the cutting rigs before they try to cut it.

Hey, I don´t know of any link, but cement is not flamable, it takes hours to burn down. A medium house can burn down in 7 minutes but it is the steel that flows, the cement is not really flamable. However, cement powder can be very flamable just for being powder. Hope this helps...

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Cement flammability?

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