Industrial Hygiene and Indoor Air Quality

Industrial Hygiene

and Indoor Air Quality Services

Industrial Hygiene

Air Quality
OSHA has standards for allowable amounts of hundreds of different substances in the air breathed by your employees. For example, carbon monoxide, various Volatile Organic Compounds, etc. each have a published limit in parts per million (PPM) or parts per trillion (PPT). For many years, we’ve worked with industrial plants, monitoring for these regulated substances and making recommendations to get workplaces into compliance with these OSHA standards.

Our staff of Certified Industrial Hygienists (CIH), industrial hygienists, engineers, and field technicians can assess the indoor environmental quality of your workplace to uncover the truth behind the complaints. ISES has developed solutions for many facilities and mitigated settlements for others.

Dosimetry
Our Certified Industrial Hygienists can provide you with an accurate determination of the frequency and intensity of the sounds in your workplace. This allows us to provide options for mitigating unwanted sounds at their source, providing adequate protection for your employees, and documenting compliance with OSHA requirements.

Ergonomics
Our team workplace specialists can provide an analysis of the biomechanical demands on your workers and practical steps you can take to reduce them. We have worked with numerous workmen's compensation carriers and can provide solutions for industrial and office settings.

Indoor Air Quality

OSHA has standards for allowable amounts of hundreds of different substances in the air breathed by your employees. For example, carbon monoxide, various Volatile Organic Compounds, etc. each have a published limit in parts per million (PPM) or parts per trillion (PPT). For many years, we’ve worked with industrial plants, monitoring for these regulated substances and making recommendations to get workplaces into compliance with these OSHA standards.

Sick Building Syndrome Investigations

In the 1990’s, we’ve expanded our Indoor Air Quality activities into office buildings, laboratories, schools and hospitals. We find that many buildings (particularly those designed and/or constructed in the 1970’s and 1980’s) are suffering from Sick Building Syndrome. In a number of these cases, the buildings were built using an “energy efficient” design, and do not have adequate ventilation provided to the occupants.

The symptoms of sick building syndrome are diverse and wide ranging. Headaches, unusual fatigue, itching or burning eyes, skin irritation, nasal congestion, dry or irritated throats, and nausea are just some of the symptoms reported. We can work with you and your employees to discover the causes of this increasingly common condition. Indoor air quality, noise, lighting, ergonomics and job-related psychosocial stressors are assessed to determine a complete picture of the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) and how these might represent possible contributions to complaints.

ASHRAE Ventilation Analysis
The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recommends a minimum of 10 cubic feet per minute of outdoor air per occupant for industrial areas.. Many workplace environments fall below this level of clean air.

To bring a building into compliance with the ASHRAE recommendation, we analyze and (when necessary) “reverse engineer” HVAC systems, measuring air flow and pressure to model building air flow. These models allow you to better understand what effect proposed HVAC changes will have on building air flow, and to make cost-effective decisions for any required changes. You’ll find that we can prescribe reasonable solutions to air flow problems.

Radon Assessment
ISES can help you assess and mitigate the potential risks of radon and other soil gas infiltrations.