EN 15051-3:2025

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-februar-2026
Nadomešča:
SIST EN 15051-3:2014
Izpostavljenost na delovnem mestu - Meritve prašnosti razsutih materialov - 3. del:
Metoda trajnega padanja
Workplace exposure - Measurement of the dustiness of bulk materials - Part 3:
Continuous drop method
Exposition am Arbeitsplatz - Messung des Staubungsverhaltens von Schüttgütern - Teil
3: Verfahren mit kontinuierlichem Fall
Exposition sur les lieux de travail - Mesure du pouvoir de resuspension des matériaux
pulvérulents en vrac - Partie 3: Méthode de la chute continue
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: EN 15051-3:2025
ICS:
13.040.30 Kakovost zraka na delovnem Workplace atmospheres
mestu
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

EN 15051-3
EUROPEAN STANDARD
NORME EUROPÉENNE
November 2025
EUROPÄISCHE NORM
ICS 13.040.30 Supersedes EN 15051-3:2013
English Version
Workplace exposure - Measurement of the dustiness of
bulk materials - Part 3: Continuous drop method
Exposition sur les lieux de travail - Mesurage du Exposition am Arbeitsplatz - Messung des
pouvoir de resuspension des matériaux en vrac - Partie Staubungsverhaltens von Schüttgütern - Teil 3:
3 : Méthode de la chute continue Verfahren mit kontinuierlichem Fall
This European Standard was approved by CEN on 15 September 2025.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this
European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references
concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN
member.
This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by
translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management
Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and
United Kingdom.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION

EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2025 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. EN 15051-3:2025 E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

Contents Page
European foreword . 3
Introduction . 4
1 Scope . 5
2 Normative references . 5
3 Terms and definitions . 6
4 Requirements . 6
4.1 General. 6
4.2 Conditioning of the bulk material . 6
4.2.1 As-received condition. 6
4.2.2 Conditioning specifications . 6
4.3 Sample and environmental control . 6
4.4 Moisture content . 6
4.5 Bulk density . 7
4.6 Test procedure . 7
4.7 Replicate tests . 7
4.8 In-house / test powder . 7
4.9 Reporting . 7
5 Continuous drop method . 7
5.1 Description of test apparatus . 7
5.2 Filters . 9
5.3 Ancillary equipment . 9
5.4 Preparation of test sample . 9
5.5 Preparation of test apparatus . 10
5.6 Test procedure . 10
5.7 Weighing the filters . 10
5.8 Limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ). 11
5.9 Determination of the inhalable and respirable dustiness mass fractions . 12
6 Evaluation of dustiness . 13
7 Test report . 13
Bibliography . 15

European foreword
This document (EN 15051-3:2025) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 137 “Assessment
of workplace exposure to chemical and biological agents”, the secretariat of which is held by DIN.
This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an
identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by May 2026, and conflicting national standards shall be
withdrawn at the latest by May 2026.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
This document supersedes EN 15051-3:2013.
EN 15051-3:2013:
— the introduction was revised to better explain the purpose of dustiness testing;
— 4.3: Change in the tolerance of relative humidity (RH): Previously, RH was specified at (50 ± 10) %
RH; now, it is specified at (50 ± 5) %;
— 5.8: Limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) has been added for the determination
and reporting of LOD and LOQ of the weighing of the filters, and the 80 ppi and 20 ppi foams.
EN 15051 Workplace exposure – Measurement of the dustiness of bulk materials consists of the following
parts:
— Part 1: Requirements and choice of test methods;
— Part 2: Rotating drum method;
— Part 3: Continuous drop method.
Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body.
A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.
According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the
following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland,
Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North
Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United
Kingdom.
Introduction
This document gives details of the design and operation of the continuous drop test method that
categorizes the dustiness of solid bulk materials, in terms of health-related mass fractions.
The dustiness values of a specific method can be used for comparing and ranking powders and are useful
for the purpose of safety by design and risk assessment. A dustiness categorization is presented to
provide users (e.g. manufacturers, producers, occupational hygienists and workers) with information on
the potential for dust emissions when the bulk material is handled or processed in workplaces. It provides
the manufacturers of bulk materials with information that can help to improve their products. It allows
the users of the bulk materials to assess the effects of pre-treatments, and also to select less dusty
products, if available. It is envisaged that different branches of industry might develop their own
categorization schemes using experimentally determined dustiness values of the bulk materials of
interest.
However, dustiness test methods measure dust at emission source and does not consider the
transportation of the airborne particles within a workplace environment to the breathing zone of a
worker. Concentrations of respirable or inhalable dust in the workplace air, resulting from the processing
and handling of bulk materials, will depend on a wide variety of factors (e.g. environmental factors,
quantity used, engineering controls, transport of particles from source to worker’s breathing zone, type
of activities). Therefore, dustiness values do not provide workplace exposure concentrations.
Although this document does not discuss in detail the analysis of dust released from bulk materials
(except in terms of health-related fractions), the test method produces samples with the potential for
chemical analysis of the contents. However, it is important to understand that for a mixture, the mass
percentage of a substance in the bulk material will be different (lower or higher) to the mass percentage
of the same substance in the dust collected by the respirable and inhalable samplers using the continuous
drop.
The EN 15051 standard was originally developed in 2006 based on the results of the European project
SMT4-CT96-2074 Development of a Method for Dustiness Testing (see [1]). This project investigated the
dustiness of 12 bulk materials, with the intention to test as wide a range of bulk materials as possible, i.e.
magnitude of dustiness, industrial sectors, chemical composition and particle size distribution. In 2013,
the standard was revised based on comments from industrial users of the standard (e.g. Industrial
Minerals Association), a number of research papers (for example, [2] and [3]) and the potential influence
of the expanding database of dustiness results.
For the measurement of dustiness of bulk materials that possibly contain or release nano-objects and
their agglomerates and aggregates (NOAA) using the continuous drop method, EN 17199-1 and
EN 17199-3 apply [8, 9].
1 Scope
This document specifies the continuous drop test apparatus and associated test method for the
reproducible production of dust from a bulk material under standard conditions, and the measurement
of the inhalable and respirable dustiness mass fractions, with reference to existing documents, where
relevant (see Clause 6).
The continuous drop method intends to simulate dust generation processes where there are continuous
falling operations (conveying, discharging, filling, refilling, weighing, sacking, metering, loading,
unloading etc.) and where dust is liberated by winnowing during falling. It can be modified to measure
the thoracic fraction as well, but this modification is not specified in this document. It differs from the
rotating drum method presented in EN 15051-2 [4] in that in this document, the bulk material is dropped
only once, but continuously, while in EN 15051-2, the same bulk material is repeatedly dropped.
Furthermore, this document specifies the environmental conditions, the sample handling and analytical
procedures and the method of calculating and presenting the results. A categorization scheme for
dustiness is specified, to provide a standardized way to express and communicate the results to users of
the bulk materials.
This document is applicable to powdered, granular or pelletised bulk materials.
This document does not apply to test the dust released when solid bulk materials are mechanically
treated (e.g. cut, crushed).
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
EN 1540, Workplace exposure — Terminology
EN 13205-1, Workplace exposure — Assessment of sampler performance for measurement of airborne
particle concentrations — Part 1: General requirements
EN 15051-1:2025, Workplace exposure — Measurement of the dustiness of bulk materials — Part 1:
Requirements and choice of test methods
EN ISO 13137, Workplace atmospheres — Pumps for personal sampling of chemical and biological agents
— Requirements and test methods (ISO 13137)
ISO 2768-1, General tolerances — Part 1: Tolerances for linear and angular dimensions without individual
tolerance indications
ISO 15767, Workplace atmospheres — Controlling and characterizing uncertainty in weighing collected
aerosols
3 Terms and definitions
For the purpose of this document, the terms and definitions given in EN 1540 and EN 15051-1 apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp/
— IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/
4 Requirements
4.1 General
The test procedures specified in EN 15051-1:2025, Clause 5 shall be applied.
4.2 Conditioning of the bulk material
4.2.1 As-received condition
For the characterization of the bulk material under workplace conditions, the bulk material shall be sent
to the organization performing the dustiness test as placed on the market or as used by the downstream
user, in air-tight containers. It shall be tested in the state in which it was received.
4.2.2 Conditioning specifications
For standard testing and inter-comparison, test materials shall be conditioned at a relative humidity (RH)
of (50 ± 5) % before testing until they reach a stable weight. The conditioning time depends on the
amount of bulk material to be conditioned and shall be at least 48 h if the weight equilibrium is unknown.
Where a large amount of bulk material is required by the test method, the bulk shall be divided in smaller
quantities during conditioning in order to increase the exposed surface area of the material to the
conditioned air (see ISO 14488 [5]).
Additional conditioning of sampling filters can be required if the conditions during transfer were
significantly different from the ranges stated above.
4.3 Sample and environmental control
Bulk materials that have a large specific surface area are sensitive to environmental conditions such as
relative humidity, temperature and electrostatic effects, and to their own moisture content, compaction
and agglomeration. Therefore, for accurate results the test atmosphere shall be within a narrow range of
temperature and humidity. In all cases the environmental conditions shall be documented.
The following test conditions shall apply:
— relative humidity (RH): (50 ± 5) %;
— temperature: (21 ± 3) °C.
The test apparatus shall be electrically grounded.
NOTE In many cases, separate determination of the particle size distribution can be valuable.
4.4 Moisture content
The moisture content of the bul
...