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Real-time dust monitoring

07 November 2024

Real-time dust monitoring offers instant information in areas where airborne dust is present, giving live readings of dust data and subsequent audio/visual alarms when dust levels are dangerous to workers health. Adrian Eccles provides an insight.

IT IS estimated around 1 million people die every year from the inhalation of dust in occupational environments worldwide. In the UK, there are around 12,000 lung disease deaths each year, estimated to be linked to past exposures at work, including exposure to dust like respirable crystalline silica (RCS) in workplaces such as construction, quarrying and manufacturing.

As well as methods used in line with the Hierarchy of Controls, providing accurate information and data for how effective a workplace’s control methods, PPE usage, substitution of hazardous substances and engineering controls, real-time dust monitoring can provide another useful solution in mitigating these occupational health risks.

Real-time dust monitoring offers instant information in areas where airborne dust is present, giving live readings of dust data and subsequent audio/visual alarms when dust levels are dangerous to workers health. This accurate and instantaneous data is essential to protecting workers and saving lives in whatever occupational environment they may work in, in real-time.

How does real-time dust monitoring work?

Most dust monitors which operate in real-time use an Optical Particle Counter (OPC) and light-scatter photometer to analyse dust particles. An OPC detects and sizes particles by measuring the amount of light scattered by individual particles as they pass through a beam of light. 

However, due to the nature of RCS particles, a real-time silica monitor will deploy Optical Refraction Technology (ORT) as well as OPC. ORT shines a laser through each individual particle and counts the interruptions in the beam, deducing size and quantity to determine if particles are asymmetrical and therefore possess unique characteristics of RCS dust. 

Image 1 shows the acceptable level of breathable RCS dust for the UK in comparison to a 1p coin, after control measures have been correctly used. The HSE recommend a workplace exposure limit of 0.1 mg/m3 for RCS which no workplace should exceed during a working day (8-hour period). The size of the RCS particle shown is invisible to the human eye and incredibly dangerous to lung health, however thanks to OPC technology, RCS particles can be effectively monitored for in real-time.

Both technologies used are designed and manufactured to require minimal maintenance and no returns to base, all whilst reducing additional workforce costs. A simple compliance check and self-check routine, which takes around 2 minutes per product, is all that is needed to ensure these real-time dust monitors are working accurately, reliably and to their maximum capacity. 

What are the benefits of real-time dust monitoring?

Real-time monitoring in any application, whether it be in leisure time, home, or work life, has become something almost every person relies on. We use mobile banking to get essential statements in real-time and we use real-time data to give us important live updates on traffic and travel. Even in heavy-duty industries, real-time monitoring is becoming increasingly essential, with gas detection, HAV monitoring, and noise monitoring all required to alert workers as soon as they are in danger. Exposure to hazardous dust is no different.

Real-time dust monitoring provides solutions to a variety of concerns relating to workplace health in multiple industries. The initial key benefit of real-time dust monitoring may seem obvious – instant alarms before dangerous dust levels are breached. Workers can continue to work at ease, knowing that they will be alerted with audio/visual alarms as soon as dust levels become dangerous to their health. 

Albeit this is incredibly important to workers, yet the list of benefits doesn’t end there.

As real-time dust monitoring provides instant alerts as and when necessary for each workplace, data is continually being collected and stored throughout each shift. Access to both live and historical data means workers can see patterns in levels of dust, and deduce what activities were happening during this time to understand why dust exposure was at certain levels.

“The analysis of collected data from real-time silica monitoring provided useful information regarding areas where silica exposure was elevated, as well as potential factors contributing to the levels observed through accurate time stamps on the data recording.” – Balfour Beatty.

This analysis of dust levels can help businesses become much more efficient by learning more about which processes increase dust exposure, but more importantly help to aid decisions on ways to suppress dust exposure. By using real-time dust monitoring, alongside the Hierarchy of Controls, decisions can be made by analysing how effective engineering and administrative controls are working to suppress or eliminate excess dust. 

“The benefit of real-time monitoring for us is when we make capital expenditure decisions, we can now ensure we target the expenditure on the things that will have the biggest effect on control.” – Hansons.

The capacity to enhance decision making through real-time dust monitoring also helps to prevent any exposure to dust in the future. By regularly deploying dust monitoring, whether it be area dust monitoring across a site or personal dust monitors to compare levels from one worker to another in different locations, relevant management staff are able to consistently put the health and safety of their workers at the forefront of the workplace’s concerns, both in real-time and for the foreseeable future.

Regardless of the application, industry or processes undertaken, real-time monitoring can provide instant alerts and data for hazardous dust in your occupational environment, in different variations:

  • Total Area Dust Monitoring, in real-time, provides full monitoring for heavy duty, high dust loading applications. Whether it’s low dust-volume clean air environments or heavy dust loads and complex mixtures, real-time area dust monitoring still remains highly accurate and operational.
  • Real-time Silica Monitoring provides RCS detection for applications with silica dust exposure. Most real-time silica monitors examine multiple detection parameters for RCS in real time, including size, symmetry, and a series of optical markers unique to RCS particles.
  • Real-time Personal Dust Monitoring provides accurate monitoring for all individual and personal dust monitoring. Many personal dust monitors are small and lightweight enough to give you the freedom to do your job whilst making zero compromises on accuracy and reliability. 

Adrian Eccles is technical product manager at Trolex. For more information, visit www.trolex.com

 
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