Industrial use of raw materials or chemical materials of all categories of substances often results in the spread of some of these substances in the air surrounding workplaces. For BV Froid, an expert in industrial ventilation, this situation can cause respiratory or hypodermic diseases of occupational origin or even intoxication of exposed operators, especially when dealing with synthetic materials. Moreover, when the products are flammable, they can cause fires or even explosions.
The presence of high-temperature sources such as ovens and drying ovens or cold sources such as refrigerated chambers can create, in the absence of a ventilation system, uncomfortable or even dangerous situations for the personnel of a factory or industrial platform.
Risks of intoxication
The materials used or produced in industry have a variety of harmful effects on the human body. According to BV Froid, an expert in industrial ventilation, particles and gases must be classified separately. However, the risk is greater when several pollutants are present simultaneously. Sometimes in different physical forms such as paint, welding and smoke, as well as dust in all its forms. What they have in common is their dangerousness to the organism.
Particles are always harmful to factory workers, either because of their chemical compositions, which are often irritating, corrosive and toxic, or because they cause lung overload in the absence of any particular harmfulness. Gases are too aggressive for the body when they represent a toxic, irritating or corrosive risk. But whether they are aggressive or not, they can still cause asphyxiation when they take the place of inhaled oxygen.
Exposure limit rules
According to BV Froid, our expert, the basic interest for all regulations is to ensure maximum purity of the atmosphere in order to preserve people’s health and guarantee their comfort. A reference scale aims to use limit values for the volume of hazardous substances present in the breathing air. It is a numerical reference which, if respected, makes it possible to ensure the protection of the majority of people present in a workspace against chemical, physical or biological components that could harm their health.
Indeed, the air-pollutant gas mixtures found in the atmosphere of industrial workshops have a consistency very little different from that of the outside air. This is because the rates of fall to the ground are negligible compared to the uncontrolled diffusion and air flows that exist even in the best-protected spaces. The pollutant does not have the latitude to move by itself and will be controlled as soon as the air with which it is mixed can be captured.
On the other hand, changes in density caused by an increase in air temperature, for example, on contact with a hot surface, can have significant impacts on air movement. That said, the movement of large particles can only be controlled by capture systems placed in their path.