DJ Cooper Building Conservation for Penallt,, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire

Abrasive blasting, commonly referred to as 'Sandblasting', is the operation of forcibly propelling a stream of abrasive material against a surface under high pressure to smooth a rough surface, roughen a smooth surface, shape a surface, or remove surface contaminants.

Despite the common use of the term, it is illegal in the UK to use most forms of sand for abrasive blasting, as the fine dust particles which are created when the sand is projected at high speed, can cause silicosis – a potentially fatal lung disease.

With a wide choice of abrasive media available, the process can be fine tuned to suit the contamination to be removed and the surface from which it is to be cleaned. By choosing correctly and applying the process skilfully, excellent results can be achieved on a great variety of cleaning tasks.

There are several variants of the process, using various media; some are highly abrasive, whereas others are milder. The most abrasive are shot blasting (with metal shot) and sandblasting (with sand). Moderately abrasive variants include glass bead blasting (with glass beads) and plastic media blasting (PMB) with ground-up plastic stock or walnut shells and corncobs. Some of these substances can cause anaphylactic shock to both operators and passers by.[2] A mild version is sodablasting (with baking soda). In addition, there are alternatives that are barely abrasive or nonabrasive, such as ice blasting and dry-ice blasting.