Occupational Hygiene Services

What is Occupational Hygiene?

Occupational hygiene identifies and manages hazardous agents (gases, vapours etc) in your workplace, thereby reducing risk to your people, your local neighbourhood and to your property. It’s an holistic approach to health and safety management, and considers the hazards at work which cannot be seen, or sometimes heard or smelt. Workplace environment can have a significant effect on employee performance, as well as on their health both in the short and longer term so it is essential it is assessed and found to be safe and in line with legal standards. This is specialist work which should only be completed by a competent person.

In short it helps organisations to protect your People, Property and Planet, and this is of particular interest to those organisations who are increasingly thinking of  the impact that their environment has upon the health, safety and welbeing of its people, and the wider environment.  Occupational hygiene enables you to measure, quantify and monitor your environmental conditions so you can be assured that your workplace is not causing harm. Measurement and monitoring is a key feature of any management system, particularly if you already have or are considering accreditation to  ISO 9001 or ISO 14001. But most important of all, it provides information you need to demonstrate you are complying with the law and to reassure your workers that you are not harming them.

What the law requires

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations  (COSHH) require you to ensure that your employees are not put at risk because of substances used or generated at work. In the case of airborne substances, in order to help you identify whether your  people  are being exposed to harmful levels, the Health and Safety Executive has prepared and published a guidance document called ‘EH40 – Occupational Exposure Limits’. EH40 contains an up-to-date list of workplace exposure limits for use in conjunction with COSHH. Essentially, this allows occupational hygienists to compare measured exposure levels to set limits in order to establish whether action is required.

We use this, as well as other sources of data, as a basis for our measurement and analysis of  hazardous substances identified in your workplace to give you assurance that you are not exposing anyone to harmful levels, have a recognised benchmark of measurement and can demonstrate compliance with the law.

How can PHSC help?

We have a range of monitoring equipment that allows our environmental technicians  from PHSC and its group of sister companies to measure  environmental hazards. These include:

• Assessment of lighting
• Asbestos surveys
• Test and examination of local exhaust ventilation (LEV)
• Workplace air monitoring (particulate / dust measurement and analysis)
• Solvent monitoring
• Analysis and measurement of gases and vapours
• Noise (see also Workplace and environmental noise
  assessment services)
• Indoor air quality assessment and test
• Quarterly tests of breathing air lines (to BS 4275)

Essentially, any substance can be measured where the situation demands it.

Some monitoring work requires samples to be collected and analysed at a laboratory. We only use UKAS-accredited laboratories to ensure that the highest level of technical accuracy is maintained. Once the results are received, our technicians write a summary report and recommend appropriate action to enable you to protect your employees and meet the law.

Your Next Step

If you would like to discuss potential chemical exposure issues within your workplace, then one of our environmental technicians would be happy to talk with you. From an initial conversation, the technician should be able to suggest a monitoring strategy for us to assess exposure levels and help you to protect your staff.

Simply click here and we will be delighted to talk to you:

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