News

NEW Wearable and Mountable Personal Dust Monitor

News

The RVT Group has added a brand new personal dust monitor to its range of hire equipment. The XD One Personal Dust Monitor is specifically designed as a compact and robust wearable or mountable platform to support the real-time detection, warning and logging of hazardous particulate concentrations.

What is the monitor used for?

Traditional personal dust monitoring involves wearing a pumped sampling system with filters that are sent off for laboratory analysis, this leads to a significant time delay between the sampling and receiving the results; during that time that workers may continue to be over-exposed with the risk of ill health. The XD One allows site teams to record and download exposure levels and time weighted averages daily and to make decisions using near real-time data, protecting the health of workers and proving whether dust control systems are effective. Whilst not a replacement for qualitative analysis, all-day-every-day data to gives you the real picture, with user alerts when short-term or daily exposure limits are reached.

The XD One allows users to specifically monitor respirable particulate matter (PM) to indicate and warn of personal exposure in working and operating environments. The device can be configured to measure and warn users based on selectable particulate matter sizes (PM1.0, PM2.5, PM4.25 and PM10) and report on all environmental Total Suspended Particulates (TSP).

With personal exposure in mind, the XD One allows users to monitor and log their immediate inhalation zones and associated risks in real-time. The device allows for body-worn, locally mountable or fixed cab installations as required.

Designed for use in a range of applications and environments, the device is suitable for monitoring both indoor and outdoor particulate conditions and is built to sense both high and low concentrations accurately. Adaptive flow rate technology supports measurement accuracy in atmospheres with varying airflow ranges.

Ease of monitoring and warning is presented through the design of a simple user interface, LED status indications and high frequency audio alarm

Features

• On device audible and visual alarms to warn users when exposure limits are reached
• Battery operated and rechargeable (16hrs+ on one charge)
• On device data logging of all particulate sizes; can be downloaded and stored as .csv files using a dedicated software package
• Custom alarm set points: tune the monitor to the dust type and size fractions most appropriate to the tasks at hand
• Almost Zero Maintenance -The automatic and on-demand self-test routine takes 5 seconds
• A full range of mounting options for walls, poles, cabs, and on the body, including on the chest for the Oronasal Sampling Zone

Benefits

• Assess individuals dust exposure within work zones – this unit tells you whether mitigation methods are sufficient
• Use data to assess the dust exposure arising from specific work activities across a representative section of the workforce.
• Alarms if TWA exceeds parameters – this enables improved dust mitigation methods to be implemented immediately and ensures that workers are not over-exposed
• Reports over 8hr TWA – avoids the risk of inaccurate recordings typically found in spot measurements where they can potentially be taken at a time when works are not being carried out
• Reports are available the same day - avoids waiting 10 days for laboratory results typically associated with consultancy assessments to determine whether the work zone is safe or not
• The one-minute compliance test is required typically every 3-6 months. There is no return-to-base servicing, or complicated set-up, cleaning or calibration routines

The importance of monitoring

Personal dust monitoring on a representative selection of workers over a longer period of time will demonstrate that controls are working and that our key assets are protected day after day. It is only recently that this has become feasible with the introduction of new wearable electronic dust monitors that include alerts for both short-term (STEL) and long-term (TWA) exposure, data logging of multiple particulate size fractions and downloadable .CSV files. The worker can now be warned when the background dust level is approaching exposure limits and check that the controls are working and that RPE is worn. The TWA alert will sound once the daily average exposure has reached limits and when RPE is worn the actual exposure can be calculated from actual data and the protection factor offered by the particular mask giving peace of mind for the wearer and the manager.

Further information

To view the XD One Personal Dust Monitor, click here

To read our Best Practice Guide 'Control of exposure to respirable dust', click here

To view our full range of monitoring solutions, click here