Oh dear God I remember being warned about this in a chem lab because we were using some silica.
Dust/particulates are always bad for the lungs. I don’t think there’s any exception. Masks with a fitness test need to be provided and specified as PPE for this kind of work, at the very least. The company is unlikely to do so themselves unless legally pressured to.
Edit from my double comment: employers are required to provide functioning, proper PPE to employees per OSHA, and also train them on properly using it. If masks and water hoses aren’t already considered required, we need to make sure that gets updated. Force the companies to comply or be sued.
I very recently watched a safety module thing about this for work actually as part of the training requirement.