INDOOR AIR QUALITY AND SICK BUILDINGS

Dinglebird Environmental Pty Ltd provides services to facilities managers and property owners to monitor and manage potentially harmful pollutants in commercial indoor environments including offices, shops, trains, railway stations, warehouses and factories.

Air Quality Assessments. Dinglebird Environmental provides Air Quality Testing and Air Quality Assessments for indoor environments such as offices, sport and leisure centres and building & construction sites. These kinds of environments are prone to several potentially hazardous air contaminants and may need expert air monitoring:

Carbon Dioxide – Carbon Dioxide is produced by human respiration and is often an indicator of poor airflow, ventilation or ineffective HVAC systems. Carbon Dioxide, indoor air quality levels above 600 – 1000 ppm can diminish staff performance and cause drowsiness.
Formaldehyde – from solvents, furniture and building materials. Formaldehyde is a constituent of many glues, varnishes and paints used in furniture and floor coverings and so Formaldehyde levels can be elevated in newly furnished indoor air environments. Formaldehyde can impact people in a variety of ways ranging from short term headaches to longer term health issues.
Indoor Air – too much or too little airflow can create uncomfortable working conditions for staff. Other indoor air characteristics impacting on comfort and health can include air humidity (low humidity can cause coughs and sore throats), draughts (can cause headaches and coughs and sneezes), elevated Carbon Dioxide levels, heat or cold.
Dust monitoring – air monitoring for dust and particle contaminants. Dust monitoring is usually undertaken using dust monitoring equipment, and where appropriate can differentiate between total dust, PM10 (irritating dust) and PM 2.5 (respirable dust).

Sick Building Syndrome – frequently caused by poor air quality, this can affect staff health and performance. It is thought that Sick Building Syndrome is associated with Formaldehyde, and sick building syndrome is generally dealt with by increasing ventilation over a prolonged period.

Dinglebird Environmental also provides expert testing on other health-impacting contaminants commonly found in the workplace:

Asbestos Registers and Management Plans. Asbestos Registers are a vital tool to recording the presence of Asbestos Containing Material (ACM), and Potential Asbestos Containing Material (PACM). As well as recording presence of ACM and PACM, a properly designed Asbestos Register will be straightforward to read, easy to follow and include a risk assessment of the Asbestos. Asbestos Registers are used by property managers to prioritise remediation works, and by contractors who are working on the premises, alerting them to the presence of Asbestos.
Emergency response checks. We provide an emergency response service to property managers to investigate odours, mould, dust, Hygiene Issues, Noise, light and hazardous environments. Eg where sewage odours exist in new buildings due to incomplete plumbing work, requiring mould and faecal bacteria sampling, mould testing and remediation planning for office buildings, lighting level testing in recently commissioned buildings, UV light emissions from factory machinery etc.
Scientific Assessments
Microbiological sampling particularly for faecal bacteria
Mould sampling and quantification using standard mould sampling techniques, mould spore incubation and colony counting
Air pollution which can cover PM10 and PM2.5 dust, normal air constituents such as Carbon Dioxide, humidity etc, and air contaminants such as Carbon Monoxide, aromatic hydrocarbons, aliphatic hydrocarbons, smoke, diesel fumes, abrasive blasting etc.