Independent Air-Quality Testing · 2025

Got questions
about silica?
Good.

You should ask. So we paid an independent industrial hygienist to find the answer.

↓   Scroll for what they found
Let's be straight

Silica is serious. We're not here to tell you it isn't. We're here to show you what's actually in the air when you charge a furnace with Glasma.

The fear around batch is real, and most of it is built on the powdered batch the industry has used for decades. The kind that puffs into a cloud the moment you open the bag. That reputation followed batch everywhere, including to products that behave nothing like it. So instead of asking you to take our word, we measured it.

Why Glasma is different

It's not a powder.
It's a pellet.

Dust exposure starts with whether the material can become airborne in the first place. This is the whole ballgame, and you can see it without a lab.

Traditional batch

Like a bag of flour

Fine powder. Open the bag and a portion of it goes straight into the air you breathe. The dust is the default state.

Glasma 700

Like a bag of kitty litter

Pelletized granules. Too heavy to float. They pour into the furnace and stay put instead of clouding the room.

What the testing found

The lab couldn't
even find it.

An independent hygienist monitored a full 8-hour shift while a worker charged the furnace six times, wearing the air sampler on the collar, in the breathing zone. Here's the worst-case result against the limits that exist to protect you.

Respirable Crystalline Silica in the air · micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³)
Lower is better. The two pins on the right are the maximum allowed. The green pin is what was measured.
Undetectable
<6.4
Measured while charging
25
Stricter industry guideline (ACGIH)
50
Federal legal limit (OSHA)
>85%
The result came in more than 85% below the federal legal limit, on the dustiest job in the building.
0
Silica detected. The reading sat below the floor of what the lab's instruments can measure.
The artist work area tested just as clean, also below detection.
Who ran the test

We didn't grade
our own homework.

Every part of this was independent. We don't own the equipment, the lab, or the sign-off.

The hygienist
Terracon Consultants
National environmental & industrial-hygiene firm. Collected the air samples on-site during a live furnace charge.
The lab
SGS Galson
Independent, AIHA-accredited industrial hygiene lab in New York. Ran the analysis under chain of custody.
The sign-off
Board-certified CIH
Report reviewed and signed by a Certified Industrial Hygienist and Certified Safety Professional.
What this means, and what it doesn't

Straight talk.

So we're clear about what the test does and doesn't say:

  • "Undetectable" means below what the lab can measure. It does not mean we're claiming zero silica forever. We're claiming the air was clean in real-world use.
  • This measured furnace charging, the dustiest task. It's the right thing to test, and it's still just one task in one studio.
  • Good ventilation and sensible studio practice still matter. The point is that even with normal airflow, Glasma tested clean. Keep doing the smart things you already do.
  • If you're a skeptic, you should be reading the actual numbers, not our summary of them. So here's the full report.

Read the whole thing.

The complete signed industrial hygiene report, lab data, calibration records and all. No summary, no spin.

↓ Download the full report (PDF) Ask us a question
Terracon Project No. 15257063 · Issued June 2025