Environmental > Work Environment
Air sampling in workplaces is essential to monitor the concentration of potentially harmful substances.
This process is crucial to ensure that levels of substances such as oil mists, organic compounds, metal particles, fumes, and dust do not exceed safety thresholds.
There are two main types of sampling:
- Area Sampling: measures the concentration in areas close to the pollution source.
- Personal Sampling: evaluates individual worker exposure.
By comparing the levels of substances in the work environment with regulatory limits, we can determine if preventive actions are necessary. These actions might include the installation of containment, abatement, or extraction devices at the source, or the requirement for workers to use specific Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
Some examples of affected sectors include:
- Carpentry workshops (for wood dust);
- Pasta factories (flour dispersion);
- Metalworking companies (heavy metals, oil mists, inhalable dust, etc.);
- Printing shops (toner dust);
- Companies working with artificial marble and granite;
- Activities involving asbestos exposure risk.
Workplace air sampling can be conducted according to various official or standardized methods (UNICHIM, UNI EN, EPA, OSHA, NIOSH, etc.), depending on the type of substance to be detected and analyzed.
