Industrial Hygiene
Industrial Hygiene & Exposure Assessment Consulting
B² helps technical organizations understand workplace exposures, build defensible sampling strategies, interpret results, and translate findings into practical controls.
How B² Helps
Understand What Your Employees Are Actually Exposed To
Industrial hygiene decisions are strongest when they start with the work itself: the material, quantity, task, duration, temperature, equipment, ventilation, and the people performing the activity. B² evaluates those factors before recommending monitoring so the assessment is focused on the exposures that matter.
Support can range from a targeted review of one chemical or task to a broader exposure assessment for a laboratory, pilot operation, or manufacturing process.
When to Assess
When an Industrial Hygiene Assessment Is Needed
An assessment may be appropriate when you introduce a new chemical, increase batch size, change a process temperature, move work out of a hood, modify ventilation, receive employee exposure concerns, commission a new line, or need data to evaluate controls.
The goal is not simply to collect samples. The goal is to collect the right information to make a sound occupational health decision.
Sampling Strategy
Personal and Area Air Sampling
B² can help determine whether personal sampling, area sampling, direct-reading instruments, laboratory analysis, or a combination of methods is appropriate. A useful plan defines the target contaminants, workers or locations, expected concentration range, sampling duration, analytical method, quality controls, and how the results will be interpreted.
Personal samples can be used to characterize a worker's breathing-zone exposure. Area samples can help understand sources, migration, background conditions, or process behavior. They answer different questions and should not be treated as interchangeable.
Chemical Exposure
VOC, Solvent, Dust and Aerosol Evaluation
Technical operations may involve volatile organic compounds, solvents, powders, aerosols, decomposition products, heated materials, or mixed exposures. B² can help organize the assessment around the actual process and select an approach that is appropriate for the hazard and the decision you need to make.
Ventilation
Ventilation and Engineering-Control Evaluation
Air sampling provides one part of the picture. B² can also evaluate how local exhaust, laboratory hoods, general ventilation, enclosures, process capture, work practices, and other controls interact with the task. Where concerns are identified, recommendations are prioritized around feasible engineering and administrative controls.
Interpretation
From Measurements to Practical Controls
Results should be interpreted in context. B² reviews findings against applicable occupational exposure limits or other relevant health-based guidance, the sampling duration, process variability, uncertainty, and the effectiveness of existing controls. Deliverables are written to support action rather than simply report laboratory numbers.
Recommendations may include ventilation changes, process enclosure, substitution, handling changes, revised SOPs, PPE, additional monitoring, or follow-up verification.
Deliverables
What You Receive From B²
- Defined exposure assessment strategy
- Sampling or monitoring plan, when appropriate
- Coordination of analytical testing as needed
- Interpretation of results
- Identification of data gaps and uncertainty
- Prioritized control recommendations
- Technical summary or report suitable for operational decision-making
Related Services
Technical support across the path from research to operations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions
Do I need personal or area air samples?
It depends on the question. Personal samples are generally used to characterize worker breathing-zone exposure, while area samples are useful for understanding sources, migration, background conditions, or process behavior.
Can B² help decide what to sample for?
Yes. The assessment should begin with the process, materials, tasks, controls, and potential routes of exposure so the monitoring plan is tied to a specific decision.
Can you help interpret laboratory results?
Yes. Results can be reviewed in the context of applicable exposure limits, sampling duration, process variability, existing controls, and the purpose of the assessment.
Do you only work in manufacturing plants?
No. B² focuses on technical environments including R&D laboratories, pilot operations, scale-up facilities, advanced materials organizations, and manufacturing.
Talk With B²
Discuss an exposure concern
Tell us the material, process, or concern. B² can help determine the right assessment strategy before you invest in unnecessary testing.