Page 1553 - Xmo Strata - Bulletin Archive

Health, Safety & Environmental Bulletin No 581

17 August 2017

Workplace Air Monitoring

At this year’s Xmo Strata safety week, we made several commitments to our employees regarding their
welfare, health and fitness. Having sprayed more than 10,000 fuel dispensers over the last 15 years, we
have made many improvements to our processes, control measures and in the paints and coatings used,
but committed to our painters and sprayers that we would engage an independent occupational health
practitioner to measuring on site concentrations of Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC’s),
Benzene, Ethylbenzene, Toluene, Meta/Para-Xylene and Ortho-Xylene whilst we were paint spraying on
site.

Intrinsically Safe Air Fed Masks in use by Xmo Strata Paint Sprayers

We requested that all substances in the air be compared to the HSE EH40 Workplace Exposure Limits
(March 2013 amendment) to ensure compliance with Regulation 7 (Prevention or control of substances
hazardous to health) and Regulation 10 (Monitoring exposure at the workplace) of the COSHH
Regulations 2002 (as amended).

As part of the process, we did identify improvements that we could and have made, including specifying
that some operatives wear intrinsically safe air-fed masks as a direct result of an individual employee
(rather than generic) risk assessments. This equipment is now supplied as part of the employee’s
equipment) when spraying on site and that improvement has been implemented and incorporated into our
safe systems of work.