When you’re working on or overseeing an industrial project, air quality is of the utmost importance. Poor workplace air quality can cause sickness and disease and have other detrimental effects not just on workplace productivity but on human health and safety.
That’s why factories, workplaces, and industrial facilities should always take proactive measures to improve and maintain air quality and safety. In this guide to improving industrial air quality, we’ll explore the most critical strategies and steps to ensuring adequate air quality — and the importance of ducting ventilation and industrial equipment.
What is Industrial Air Pollution?
Industrial air pollution is one of the biggest unseen challenges you might face in your workplace, especially if you’re working in a high-emission environment such as a factory or a manufacturing facility.
Without the proper industrial measures, air pollutants will accumulate over time and gain potency — especially in closed areas. Air pollution usually comes from the following sources:
- Emissions from running machinery
- Exhaust fumes
- Chemical reactions
- Particulate matter from production processes
These air pollutants — if built up over time and concentrated enough — can impact health and safety conditions and cause health problems among workers, such as respiratory issues, allergies, and other illnesses and diseases.
Even if you don’t think air quality is a big problem in your industry or workplace, it’s still a good idea to conduct regular air quality assessments to make sure of this, and to address any other potential unseen risks. Particulate matter levels, volatile organic compounds, and gas concentrations should all be taken into consideration when conducting air quality assessments. Keep in mind that flagging a potential problem early on and taking cautionary measures will pay off in the long run and ensure your workplace is as safe and comfortable as possible.
How Can You Improve Poor Workplace Air Quality?
Once you’ve assessed your workplace air quality, it’s time to start taking steps to improve it — and once it’s improved, regulate, maintain, and manage it effectively. Here are a few of the most effective and essential methods that can improve your industrial air quality:
Installing Industrial Ducting and Ventilation Systems
Having proper industrial or commercial ducting and ventilation installed will help to ensure a safe and healthy work environment and comply with regulations. A properly installed and well-designed industrial ducting system can effectively remove most airborne pollutants. In addition, your ducting system will allow and encourage fresh air to circulate through the working environment. Depending on what’s best for your particular industry and workplace, you may need to choose between installing a natural ventilation, mechanical ventilation, or a hybrid system.
Beyond just ducting, it’s also essential to properly maintain your industrial HVAC system (Heating, Ventilation, and Cooling) to ensure good air quality and working conditions. Air quality isn’t just about pollutants, after all; it also involves regulating the temperature in the working area so that it is not too hot or too cold – as unsuitable temperature levels can also impact health and productivity.
Controlling Emissions with a Fume Hood
While ducting and ventilation help remedy air pollution in industrial settings, a more proactive measure is to control emissions straight at the source. One key piece of equipment to capture pollutants directly from emission points is a fume hood. In some industrial settings such as engineering, mining, and pharmaceutical, it’s a requirement to have fume hood equipment in proper working condition to help detoxify the air and safely extract hazardous materials.
Using Air Filtration and Purification
Together with controlling emissions, an excellent way to improve and maintain a good level of air quality in your factory or workplace is to get an air filtration and purification system installed. These systems can help to catch and remove the airborne contaminants and particles that your fume hood and ducting system miss. Dust, allergens, and volatile compounds can be eliminated by high-efficiency filters and purification technologies using carbon filters and other air filtration equipment.
Inspect and Maintain All Systems and Equipment
If you’ve got all of the above systems and equipment installed, you should be set up with good air quality. However, it doesn’t end there: you’ll have to inspect your air improvement systems and equipment regularly and maintain them if you need to, whether that’s internal or external, by hiring a professional environmental technology company. Keeping tabs on these systems and equipment is even more important than whatever you may be working on — it’s the health of you and your workers at stake, so it’s better to be safe than sorry!
Best Practices for Maintaining and Managing Air Quality for Your Workplace
Industrial facility managers should always make sure they prioritise these best practices to ensure that air quality is upheld in the workplace:
- Regularly maintain and inspect ventilation, ducting, and HVAC components
- Keep all employees aware of how to manage air improvement equipment
- Make sure that safety measures for all equipment are in place at all times
- Promote responsible behaviour and education about pollutants for employees
For more best practices for improving air quality in industrial settings such as factories, consult a professional environmental company in your area that can assess your workplace’s air quality and recommend the most suitable solutions for your business or project.
Consult the Industrial Environmental Experts at Searose
Improving air quality in high-emission industrial settings where pollutants can be harmful is crucial for promoting a healthier workplace environment. These solutions are most applicable to industries that are prone to air pollutants such as fumes, particles, and other emissions from work processes and machinery. By implementing and maintaining effective systems and equipment suitable to your industry, you can not only enhance your air quality, but you can also improve working conditions for all involved parties.
If you need to improve the air quality in your workplace or maintain your equipment and systems, the environmental technology experts at Searose Environmental are here to help. Whether you need industrial ventilation solutions, fume hood repairs, or ducting installation services in Brisbane or Sydney, we can assist you in improving, maintaining, and managing the air quality in your industrial environment to keep everyone safe, healthy, and productive.