Exposure
monitoring is a way of measuring the extent of hazardous substances during a
task to ensure workers avoid exposure that could cause a wide range of health
issues. It is important to monitor the level of exposure and ensure appropriate
control measures are introduced.
An effective method of protecting workers
against harmful exposure is through personal monitoring. Personal sampling pumps offer an enhanced
monitoring system to identify, assess and control health hazards in the
workplace whilst providing quantifiable data records.
SOCOTEC UK workplace exposure
monitoring
SOCOTEC UK is the UK’s leading provider of testing, inspection and
compliance services, with comprehensive solutions in Infrastructure & Energy,
Environment & Safety and Building Control & Fire Consultancy Delivering seven million tests a year to more than 5,000 clients,
SOCOTEC offers the widest range of testing, inspection and compliance services
in the UK. With operations in 25 countries and 7,800 employees, the SOCOTEC
Group delivers services to improve the performance of businesses and local
authorities through risk management.
SOCOTEC’s fleet of highly qualified occupational hygienists provide a
market-leading service offering the assurance of compliance with legislation
and regulations, including COSHH Regulations, Control of Noise at Work
Regulations and Control of Vibration at Work Regulations. SOCOTEC’s team conduct a range of services to assist clients in
monitoring, assessing and controlling human exposure to health risks, helping
employers and employees to understand risks in the workplace and to minimise or
eliminate these hazards. To
ensure the team is able to establish accurate measurements for exposure, SOCOTEC
relies on accurate and reliable equipment to quantify exposures to harmful
substances within a workplace. To help address its needs for measurement of
exposure to harmful particulates and vapours, SOCOTEC looked to Casella for its
air sampling monitoring solutions.
Preventing ill health with Casella
instrumentation
SOCOTEC UK is committed to delivering the best possible service for its
clients and has a long history using and trusting Casella air sampling
solutions to identify harmful areas of exposure and help mitigate the workplace
risks.
Since
2004, SOCOTEC equipped its occupational hygiene team with the Casella’s
Apex1 and Apex2IS air sampling pump solutions, and Casella’s occupational &
environmental noise kits since 2010. The organisation has over 90 Casella products
and most recently introduced the Casella Flow Detective Plus in conjunction
with Apex2IS Plus air sampling pump.
Rob Preston, Occupational Hygienist
Team Leader at SOCOTEC, says: “We carry out a lot of occupational hygiene
assessments across a number of high risk industries, in large industrial
manufacturing sites, automotive, nuclear and waste and recycling. We visit numerous
environments where it’s critical that we are able to identify airborne
contamination quickly and effectively to put it right.”
Rob has been with SOCOTEC for eight years and leads a team of 13
occupational hygienists. He has visited a variety of working sites, from
nuclear facilities to chocolate factories. Rob and his team are responsible for
conducting exposure monitoring and providing assistance and advice to protect
against physical and chemical agents that could exist in the workplace, relying
on their sampling equipment to accurately detect harmful dusts, gases, airborne
metals in the atmosphere.
“Using Casella’s Apex2IS we monitor for a number of harmful substances,
for example silica dust, toxic volatile organic compounds, airborne metals”
says Rob, “and we need to be able to have complete confidence in the solutions
we use, and in the integrity of the samples we collect. The Apex pumps are a
huge asset to our team and in our experience the accuracy, durability and
reliability of the solutions are second to none.”
In addition to air monitoring, SOCOTOC employ Casella Sound Level Meters
and dBadge personal noise dosimeters to measure for occupational and
environmental noise. Rob says, “Some of our biggest clients are in the quarry
and mining industry based around the UK. When we go out to these sites, we are
always equipped with our Casella kit.”
Travel
is a frequent part of the job for Rob and his team, so equipment reliability
and ease of use is essential. “A concern for us when we have remote work,” says Rob, “is
the failure of kit, which could result in significant loss of time and money.
If equipment is faulty and unreliable this means repeat visits to the site are
required. In our experience, however, using Casella pumps this is very rarely
an issue and we can trust in the ability of the kit. It’s for this reason we
continue to work with Casella and why it’s a partnership built on trust and
confidence.”
Casella is dedicated to reducing occupational health
and environmental risks, and
supporting businesses in solving their monitoring and analysis needs. For more
information visit www.casellasolutions.com
For more information on SOCOTEC, visit
www.socotec.co.uk