NIOSH Pocket Guide ↗
A valuable chemical-by-chemical reference with exposure limits, symptoms, and protective guidance.
Why this exists
Make the invisible easier to understand.
Information about airborne hazards is scattered across standards, guidance, research reports, and technical databases. Dusts.org turns that material into a browsable reference so people can compare hazards before they have to read hundreds of pages.
The project’s value
From confusion
to clarity.
People encounter airborne hazards in real situations: cutting stone, welding metal, handling grain, cleaning mold, spraying chemicals, or working around smoke. Yet the information is often divided by agency, industry, or technical vocabulary.
Dusts.org brings these hazards into one understandable place. It helps visitors recognize what they may be breathing, see how different materials and processes compare, and understand why the difference between a dust, fume, mist, fiber, vapor, gas, or aerosol matters.
The goal is practical confidence: better questions for an employer, safety professional, clinician, or regulator; earlier recognition of a potential hazard; and clearer choices about reducing exposure. It is educational guidance, not a substitute for professional advice or a legal standard.
The wider landscape
Useful references exist.
People still need a map.
The closest accessible comparisons are excellent resources, but they solve narrower problems. Dusts.org is designed around the way people actually encounter airborne hazards: across materials, workplaces, processes, and forms—not only as isolated chemical names.
OSHA Occupational Chemical Database ↗
A searchable database for chemical properties, exposure limits, and occupational-use information.
NIOSH data visualization app ↗
An open searchable and visual exploration of the NIOSH Pocket Guide dataset.
How to use it
Find your situation.
Understand the risk.
Start with the wiki and narrow the catalogue by the kind of airborne material, what it is made of, how it is generated, and where it is encountered. The aim is to make a complicated subject useful to workers, families, students, journalists, and anyone trying to make sense of an exposure.