Why Are Dust Detectors Essential For Business Safety?

A dust detector might sound like a simple thing, but in certain working environments it can be essential for ensuring the safety of your business and the people that work within it. By tracking the levels of dust in the air at any given time, it can help you to assess whether an area is safe to work in or whether remedial action needs to be taken.

This is part of the duty of care that you have as an employer and is also a big part of complying with the legislation that protects your workers and prevents you from facing legal penalties or enforcement action.

In this article, CEM Solutions takes a look at the role of dust detectors and how they have become an essential part of business safety.

What is a dust detector?

In certain industries or environments, it is possible that a lot of dust can be produced which has the potential to be hazardous. It is therefore important to monitor the presence of particulate matter in the air and track its levels to maintain a safe air quality. If high levels of particulate matter are detected then it can cause a number of health issues that you need to protect your employees from.

Dust detectors can be freestanding, ensuring that they are constantly monitoring the dust levels in a particular space. These tend to be situated in areas where there is a particular risk of dust build up and offer continuous monitoring that can then create an alert through an online system when levels become too high. This also allows reports to be collated that can show the fluctuations in dust levels over a particular period of time.

It is also possible for staff members to wear personal dust monitors. These track the dust levels that an individual is subjected to throughout their working day. They can provide visual and audible alarms if the wearer is exposed to increased levels of dust, allowing them to take any immediate necessary action to keep themselves safe.  This allows continuous protection for people who might be repeatedly exposed to risks as they go about their job.

In the past, dust monitors required instrument panels to be read regularly, which meant that the data they provided was not always reliable. Time has now moved on and so has technology, which means that there is now much more detailed reporting available. Each dust detector can now display and record all of the information it collects and feed it back in real time. This allows you to minimise any unplanned and expensive downtime and allows workers to be alerted as soon as there is a problem, which can then allow them to make themselves safe much earlier than before.

The information that is collected by a dust monitor can be used in different ways. As well as ensuring the immediate safety of your employees, it can also help you to identify when filters are not working properly so that you can carry out any necessary maintenance to help keep dust levels under control. It also means that you can detect small filter leaks and ensure that your filter cleaning mechanism is working properly. A dust monitor can help you to be aware of the relevant airflow in an area and show when there might be a backup of dust in certain pieces of equipment.

Business safety

Anyone who runs a business should know that the safety of their workforce should be their number one concern, and dust detectors can play a huge part in this. If your business operates in an industry that is know for producing high levels of dust or working within these environments, then it is important to take any necessary steps to protect those who might be exposed to it. This is particularly relevant in the construction industry, as much of the work that is done can create different types of dust particles.

A dust detector allows you to assess the safety of each site and create correct risk assessments based on the data that you receive. This means that you can modify your practice, invest in necessary PPE and look at ventilation options that can create a cleaner environment to work in.

A failure to do this can put your employees at risk. This means that they can end up taking large amounts of time off work at a cost to the business, or that they could make a claim against you for failing in a duty of care.

It can also mean that you are not compliant with a number of health and safety regulations, which could lead to the business being faced with hefty fines, closer scrutiny or even having sites shut down.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) sets out a number of laws that businesses must be aware of and adhere to. To ensure the safety and well-being of workers, there are permissible Workplace Exposure Limits (WELs) in place which form part of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations, which concern themselves with certain types of dust, including silica. Having dust monitors positioned in the right places or asking employees to wear them can help to ensure that you are complying with these regulations.

Having dust monitors in place can show that you are working with all relevant health and safety guidance and can ensure that your employees are kept as safe as possible whenever they are at work. They also allow you to identify patterns that might show particular areas of concern that put you in a position to change the way in which you work to prevent this.

Dust can be the cause of many respiratory illnesses and health complications that have been suffered by workers in the past and so regulations are now in place to help prevent this. Dust monitoring is therefore essential in order to make sure that you comply with these regulations in order to keep your workforce safe, and your business too.