Fab four aid compliance
October 1st 2005

Gary Noakes, Fellow of the Royal Institute of Public Health & Hygiene and product manager for Casella, looks at a new range of instruments that help reduce the risk of ill health to employees and help employers ensure they are compliant with safety requirements

In overall risk assessment terms there is far more chance of employees being affected by some form of occupational health problem than by physical accidents.

In 2003/04 an estimated 2.2 million people in Britain were suffering from an illness which they believed was caused or made worse by their current or past work.

Something must therefore be done to highlight the risks and source solutions to minimise them. The everincreasing number of work place illnesses comes as the Government and HSE are trying to promote a better approach to the subject.

The mechanism by which employers are required to identify hazards, undertake assessment and adopt precautions within the workplace falls within the risk assessment requirements of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations of 1999. On top of these regulations there are other directives and regulations such as the Noise at Work Regulations 1989 due to be updated by the implementation of the new noise at work directive due in 2006, and those covering hazardous substances (COSHH) and lead (CLAW - Control of Lead at Work), asbestos (CAW - Control of Asbestos at Work) all supplemented by Approved Codes of Practice and guidance from the HSE.

There are also new directives that focus on good practice, and new single exposure limits called WEL’s (Workplace Exposure Limits) have now been adopted.

These replace the Maximum Exposure Limits (MELs) and Occupational Exposure Standards (OESs).

Many plant engineers and safety managers realise that their plant may well have areas that could be classed as potentially explosive atmospheres. In fact, estimates reveal that 50% of all industrial applications now contain a hazardous area of one type or another.

Since July 2003, all equipment for use in these areas has to comply with the ATEX directives. However, whatever the agent causing the ill-health, the approach is generally the same - identification, risk assessment, implementation of controls, and monitoring.

To assist companies with a requirement to monitor a wide variety of substances in these areas, Casella has launched four handheld devices that are ATEX compliant and allow monitoring of noise, dust, vapour and air contaminants sampling. The new instruments have been developed for users who have a requirement to monitor in or around these hazardous areas, all meeting the stringent electrical and mechanical standards required.

They include:

• The Apex personal sampling pump, UK manufactured, ATEX approved for sampling of dusts fumes and vapours for COSHH applications. These units can also be used for personal exposures to asbestos.

• The Microdust 880 I.S (intrinsically safe), a real time dust monitor for undertaking walk-through dust surveys with data collection for retrospective analysis.

  Many areas will give rise to high levels of dust, which as well as causing respiratory hazards, could give rise to explosive risks if high enough levels are attained.

• Areas that require monitoring for solvents and vapours can be catered for with the new VOC Pro PID detector unit. This allows measurement of solvents down to PPM levels for all compliance and COSHH monitoring applications. Instruments now offer internal data logging facilities that enable time history profiles of individuals work patterns and exposures to be recorded. This provides the manager with detailed information and appropriate actions such as selection of protective equipment, extraction, or modification of work practices. These products will assist users to make evaluations, both qualitative and quantitative, and help ensure WEL’s are not exceeded and exposures are reduced as low as reasonably practicable.

• They are joined by the CEL 360 I.S an intrinsically safe Noise Dosimeter for undertaking personal noise monitoring programmes. The noise at work directives now require even more stringent monitoring to be undertaken, and this device can be used to monitor personnel who are involved in a variety of processes throughout a working shift without interfering with their normal work practices. The costs involved in purchase are minimal, especially when this cost is compared to any single potential claim made by an employee, and although these purchases can sometimes be seen as offering "all expense - no gain" this attitude is now rapidly changing and more companies are forward looking in their approach to health and safety standards.

The health issue is here to stay, so all employees should adopt a "prevention is better than cure approach".

Bulletin