Air quality testing, airborne monitoring and personal monitoring are just some of the names given to this sort of testing. The name isn’t important but the results and their interpretation is.
COSHH regulation 10 states that-
(1) (a) it is requisite for ensuring the maintenance of adequate control of the exposure of employees to substances hazardous to health; or (b) it is otherwise requisite for protecting the health of employees, the employer shall ensure that the exposure of employees to substances hazardous to health is monitored in accordance with a suitable procedure.
(2) It may be adequate to carry out inspection and test of the control measures alone. This should normally be supported by some initial sampling of the atmosphere and further sampling if appropriate to provide the baseline data for deriving suitable and adequate settings for the control measures concerned.
Personal sampling is used to measure and detect hazardous exposures in a working environment. It is done to measure the quality of the air a worker may be breathing in if they are not protected, and to ensure that COSHH regulations have been met. For more information on the personal sampling instruments we use please visit these pages:
Air quality testing provides concise and accurate proof of the effective control of airborne contaminants in the workplace.
EH40 Workplace Exposure Limits lists thousand of airborne substances that can be hazardous to your health and these are mostly present in dust, fume, gas, mist and vapour. Whatever the hazard in the air, we have the instrumentation to test for it. The results are subsequently compared with relevant exposure limits* and interpreted to determine the need for improvements.
Measurements are used to demonstrate compliance with current health-related and environmental standards. The results can also be used for troubleshooting and providing data for governing bodies, insurance companies and health and safety professionals.
We advise that air quality testing is carried out on LEV systems if there are no commissioning or benchmarking results available.
Furthermore, we recommend that the testing be carried out every 2 or 3 years (depending on hazard levels) or after significant changes in system design or substantial modification. Where necessary we advise on the effectiveness of control measures in place and assist in the formulation of appropriate risk management strategies.