FTIR gas analyser assesses office air quality

A pharmaceutical company has employed a portable FTIR multi-parameter gas analyser from Quantitech to check air quality in an office where there had been a number of odour complaints.

Monitoring up to 25 compounds simultaneously, the FTIR was able to demonstrate compliance with occupational safety limits.

Many gases are odourless; however, it is important to investigate odour complaints because they might be indicative of a potential safety problem, so it is often necessary to conduct air analysis to ensure that levels are below those specified in the EH40/2005 updated 2007 workplace exposure limits (WELs).

Odour thresholds (OTs) are issued by the World Health Organization and others and these can be used to assess the likely source of an odour problem.

A Gasmet DX 4030 was employed to assess the office air by sampling and analysis for a period of approximately one hour.

The results provided a picture of the room air quality, demonstrating that there were no reasons for concern from a safety perspective.

In addition to gas analysis of the room air, samples were taken from potential sources of contamination, such as carpets, radiator vents, skirting boards, whiteboard cleaners and marker pens.

However, while elevated levels of compounds such as dichloromethane, dichloroethane and limonene were observed when a marker pen and cleaner were tested, the levels did not exceed the WELs for these substances.

However, OTs were exceeded for limonene and methylcyclopentane.

The FTIR gas analysis demonstrated that the air in the room was safe to breathe.

However, it did not identify the source of the odour complaints.

It is likely, therefore, that the source produces compounds with extremely low OTs - probably parts per trillion.

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