In the UK there is legislation regarding exposure to risks to health and safety by third parties from the operations of a business. Legislation, like the South African Occupational Health and Safety Act, protects employees against exposure to substances hazardous to health. There have been a number of prosecutions in the UK recently for dust pollution.

Some of the prosecutions relate to wood dust or silica dust. There have been claims in South Africa relating to dust from neighbouring construction operations or mine dumps.

Where there is no physical damage to property or material hazard to health of persons, the quantum does not tend to be high. A layer of dust may not be damage and only clean-up costs are claimed. Dust would not normally be a ‘contaminant’ because it is part of the product or part of the production or construction process, or part of the natural world.”

There may be good reasons to exclude dust from policy cover. For instance, in a solar farm, dust on the panels is an ordinary incidence of the operations and needs cleaning of in the usual course of business. However, a major dust storm may be something accidental and covered.

This question whether to cover or exclude dust must be considered in relation to pollution cover or a pollution exclusion in relation to the nature of the risk being covered and the type of dust potentially involved.