This case study is a detailed exploration and analysis of a trial ran to monitor respirable crystalline silica (RCS) levels, using an AIR XS Silica Monitor, on behalf of our UK partners Sunbelt Rentals.
The trial monitored the exposure levels to workers and visitors at the Balfour Beatty Bottesford maintenance hangars, which are used daily to store and maintain groundwork equipment. Completing activities to clean such equipment, often covered in aggregate compounds, like concrete, can cause risk of RCS exposure to both workers and visitors in the area.
The challenge for Balfour Beatty, which the AIR XS Silica Monitor and Sunbelt Rentals were tasked with finding a solution to, was to determine the level of risk posed from this RCS exposure and provide specific insights to help introduce preventative strategies for the future of protecting workers and visitors.
“The analysis of collected data from the [AIR XS] unit 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 recordings from the Trolex [AIR XS] unit.” – Nick Moon, Business Manager – Cranes & Piling Plant, Balfour Beatty, Asset & Technology Solutions.
The trail lasted for a 3-week period, with the AIR XS identifying and monitoring exposure to workers within the hangars. See the key findings for yourself.
Learn more about our real-time fixed silica dust monitor, AIR XS, can help improve your safety processes and keep your workers safe from harmful silica dust today.
Reactec have been specialists in workplace health and safety environments for more than 15 years. Originally focusing on the damaging effects of exposure to vibration, they soon discovered that the most effective way of mitigating workplace risk lies in gathering as much data as possible.
As CEO Jacqui McLaughlin explains, “The traditional approach to health and safety that says ‘I can think about a problem, do a risk assessment and as a consequence of that assessment I can make it safe for people’, we prefer to go one step further and engineer out problems.
If we can measure what’s actually happening in the way of risk, then we can make workplaces a safer place to be.”
Starting with wearable hand/arm vibration monitoring technology to measure vibration exposure, Jacqui and her team quickly realised that the data management, hosting and reporting they provided their clients, was a powerful health and safety tool that could also be usefully applied to other workplace risks.
Rather than try to create new technology to measure a variety of risks, Reactec started to look for partners. Experts in their respective risk fields, whose work could be complemented by their data management technology.
“We see Trolex as a leading expert in how to measure dust and what we’re doing is providing a platform that makes the dust data they collect easy to access and meaningful.
We’re turning their data into meaning.”
“We take the data associated with a process so that your records don’t just look like a bunch of numbers, but they tell you about who was doing what and where. And as you build up more data, you can get more intelligence in terms of process and people and where you need to put in your biggest efforts to get safer environments.”
With new dashboard integration and development soon to be rolled out to a live Trolex XD ONE Portable Dust Monitor client, things are moving fast.
Complementary technology that gives the simple to use and easy to integrate Trolex XD ONE, and Reactec a fast-track route into the world of actionable dust monitoring intelligence.
“And there’s an overlay angle,” says Jacqui.
“With our tech we get information on vibration. We have other tech that gives us information on noise. And if you start overlaying all of that data with dust data and also situational location information, you can create a health risk passport for an individual or a site. It’s the very start of an exciting journey that will provide more and more useful data as clients understand what they can do with the data over time.”
Reactec and Trolex; a marriage made in data and a powerful collaboration that looks set to flourish in the future. Plans are already afoot to take things to the next level with new bluetooth, IoT data recording and cloud-based analytics.
Get in touch today for more information on how you can get the most insightful analysis on your worker health and safety.