As part of our air quality monitoring services, we are able to provide specialist monitoring equipment and analysis of results for both outdoor and indoor air quality. This allows employers to put in place air quality strategies to comply with the law and protect their staff from occupational exposure to potentially damaging air pollutants.

What is Air Quality Monitoring?

Air quality monitoring helps identify and quantify the amount of pollution in the air. Air quality monitoring is useful for understanding baseline air quality conditions, tracking trends in pollution levels and for verifying the effectiveness of any mitigation measures employed. Air quality monitoring equipment can be deployed outside, within homes and in workplaces to assess the risk of exposure to airborne contaminants.

Air Pollution Workplace Exposure Monitoring

Workers can be exposed to a wide range of toxic or harmful dusts, aerosols and gases while at work. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the UK sets a number of Workplace Exposure Limits (WELs) that must not be exceeded. This needs to be determined with monitoring over Time Weighted Average (TWA) periods representative of a working period where acute or chronic health effects could occur.

Phlorum routinely carries out such air quality monitoring services using the prescribed processes determined by the HSE and the Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM). We can also advise on what mitigation might be required to reduce workers’ exposure to air pollutants – the last course of action being to recommend appropriate Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE).

Radiation Workplace Exposure Monitoring

Ionising radiation can come from a variety of sources in industrial and commercial settings. However, stringent measures are usually in place to prevent emissions of ionising radiation or radioactive materials from affecting workers – e.g., use of radionucleotides in laboratories, use of nucleonic gauges in industry, use of X-rays in medical facilities.

Who is at Risk from Ionising Radiation?

In the oil and gas sector, there is a particular risk to workers from exposure to ionising radiation from the accumulation of radioactive plaques and scales that build up over time from gases and minerals reacting with pressure changes in pipework and tanks as oil and gas is pumped from deep below the earth’s surface.

As these plaques and scales accumulate, which are referred to as TENORM (Technically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material), the amount of radiation they emit increases, which can pass through the pipes and tanks that contain them or spread in contaminated materials when containment is broken.

Making staff aware of ionising radiation risks, which cannot be detected without specialist air quality monitoring equipment, is therefore very important; as is identifying the sources of radiation before they potentially become harmful.

Experts in Workplace Exposure & Radiation Monitoring Consultancy

Our team of air quality consultants hold licenses for handling research-grade radionucleotides and other radioactive materials. They also have Radiation Protection Supervisor qualifications for measuring and managing ionising radiation exposure at industrial facilities.

Our staff have carried out ionising radiation exposure awareness training for staff on offshore oil and gas facilities and have completed TENORM monitoring surveys on operational offshore platforms and onshore processes.