Real-time or personal air sampling instruments: it’s up to you

Weigh the pros and cons of the two main types of air quality testing.

• By Tim Turney
• October 15, 2024

The UK and US share many similarities, but differ markedly in the way each country structures and enforces its respective health and safety legislation, surveillance strategies, sampling methods and values. boundaries.

The UK CoSHH regulations are very clear regarding the need to monitor aerial hazards:

• Demonstrate compliance with a workplace exposure limit (WEL).

• When you need to demonstrate that the control equipment is working.

In the United States, guidelines and exposure limits are incorporated into the relevant parts of the same federal regulations. Air quality testing methods can be found in the NIOSH Manual of Methods of Analysis, which is equivalent to HSE publication HSG173. and the companion series Methods for Determining Hazardous Substances (MDHS), while the WELs themselves are published in EH40.

Real-time direct reading instruments and personal air sampling pumps are commonly used for workplace exposure monitoring to assess potential hazards to worker health. Each method has its advantages and limitations, and the choice between them depends on various factors such as the specific contaminants being monitored, the nature of the working environment, the desired level of precision, and the resources available.

Air Sampling Pumps

When it comes to compliance, the US and UK use air sampling pumps as a standard measure. The HSE and relevant federal regulations use air sampling pumps because of the certifiable and accurate data provided by the technique.

The pump is attached to a worker (usually on a belt) with appropriate sampling media placed in their breathing zone. This may involve a filter housed in a sampling head, placed near workers’ faces and used for a long enough time to establish a precise concentration value which can then be compared to the WEL. Each contaminant will have a dedicated “official method” which will indicate the type of filter and sampling head (or tube for vapors) for the given hazardous substance as well as the required flow rate and minimum run time.

This article was originally published in the October 2024 issue of Occupational Health and Safety.