Executive Summary

An employer's due diligence as part Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) legislation means that all reasonable precautions, under the particular circumstances shall be taken to prevent injuries or accidents in the workplace. When working in environments where airborne particles are present or where certain gases can attain toxic levels, monitoring is often required. However, traditional methods for monitoring air aren't always reliable and, if an incident occurs, the question industry should be ready to answer is: "Was there due diligence ?"

Common Practices

Common practices involve a number of strategically located stationary panels that monitor specific gases in their respective location. The problem with this approach is that gases move with air flow which is affected in an unpredictable pattern from day-to-day operations of a plant. To put this into context, toxic concentrations can exist in "pockets" that float around in a given area and go undetected by the stationary panel or station. The personnel in the affected area won't always be aware of the increased exposure while the monitoring equipment will signal back to the Master Control Room (MCR) normal environmental conditions.

Evolving Practices

In an article I published in April 2015, Hexagon Engineering's Wearable Digital Air Quality Monitor was introduced as part of a Study group. Now, we bring the practice a step closer to an industrial application. The device is light weight, fits in a pocket or clips on a belt. Visual indication is available on the device itself or optionally on a smartphone via a wireless communications link. At the site seen at this link Site Test, monitoring would be for levels of Carbon Monoxide (CO) and PM2.5. Exposure to both measurements can be alarmed in real time for the location where the employee is situated, filling the gaps (and potentially all requirements) by the stationary panel shown in the picture.

Next Stage

Looking forward, the next stage will involve the application of this technology for industrial safety applications using predictive analytics and cause analysis as part of Industry 4.0 deployments. In the longer run, these are the IoT initiatives that will allow industry to better conduct due diligence in their OHS programs.

If you liked what you read, please feel free to share this article with others you know via LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ or Facebook. It’s good to share.

by Peter Darveau

For more about Hexagon Technology Inc., visit www.hexagontechinc.com .