PID in industrial hygiene

Summary
Industrial (or occupational) hygiene places the emphasis on prevention of ill health from work, through recognising, evaluating and controlling the risks. For anyone working with hazardous compounds, these chemicals represent a significant potential source of risk. Modern PID instruments provide reliable detection of over 200 of the most dangerous chemicals, helping to ensure effective industrial hygiene.

Introduction
Many chemicals in common use have been identified as extremely hazardous, representing serious health risks to personnel in the plants where they are manufactured or used, as well as to those tasked with transporting them. All are governed by clearly defined exposure limits, and being able to accurately monitor hazardous chemicals at these concentrations is a vital aspect of industrial hygiene.

Identifying hazardous chemicals
A first step in industrial hygiene applications is of course to identify the types and sources of hazardous chemicals. Any location where the chemicals are stored or used should be regularly monitored. This can be performed with hand-held instruments, or with fixed-in-place detectors that can send the information directly to a control system. A plant survey might identify possible sources of leaks and emissions that should be monitored with hand-held instruments. Further, the use of hand-held instruments should be used to regularly sweep for ‘hot spots’ or high concentrations.

Among the more toxic chemicals in industrial use are vinyl chloride, ethylene oxide, styrene, polyols, acrylates and solvents, together with a host of other VOCs. Many of these are produced as intermediate products in the manufacture of other chemicals. Vinyl chloride, for example, is produced as the precursor of PVC. Known to cause liver cancer, vinyl chloride must be carefully monitored for ambient concentrations during its manufacture, during its transport and during the manufacture of PVC, while the finished PVC also has to be tested for residual vinyl chloride.

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