Industries We Work With

The impacts of dust and air quality affect us all and are concerns for most industrial, commercial and public organistaions. We work in many countries beyond the British and Irish islands from Australia to the USA and Azerbaijan to Portugal. Our clients' activities are equally variable and range from running docks to managing the environmental impacts of steel works and from road construction to running museums.

Many industrial activities produce dust or impact on air quality; others may be adversely affected by neighbours' activities and the public have a direct and often increasing concern with undesirable impacts. It is essential that due consideration is given to the whole network of impacts at the earliest stages of planning as well as during and after implementation.

DustScanAQ provides consultancy services to a wide range of sectors including:

Minerals, oil and gas
Food and agriculture
Transport and infrastructure
Planning and development
Construction and refurbishment
Power generation

Recycling and waste management
Manufacturing
Local and national government
Storage and warehousing
Docks, harbours and marinas
Public institutions - schools, hospitals etc.

Air Quality Lancaster University Case Study

Written By

DustScan Editor

Background

Lancaster University (LU) union representatives raised concerns about poor air quality in an Underpass at the Bailrigg campus. LU contacted DustScanAQ seeking assistance on rectifying the problem.

Issue

Conditions in the Underpass were a perfect storm for poor air quality: no mechanical ventilation, unrestricted private vehicle traffic, over 300 idling buses and thousands of students per day waiting at the kerbside.

Solution

DustScanAQ undertook a six-month survey at the Underpass, monitoring the key pollutants associated with traffic emissions. A low-cost automatic monitor was recommended, which provided accurate results but also fit in with LU’s budgetary constraints. A series of six-monthly reports were produced by DustScanAQ which documented the fluctuations in pollutant concentrations over the monitoring period. The results of the monitoring informed the mitigation measures, which were discussed with LU and then implemented at the end of September.

Outcome

The first four months (June – September) of monitoring recorded 14 exceedances of the NO2 one-hour mean objective: it looked certain that the 18 allowable exceedances per calendar year would be surpassed. Following discussions with LU, several mitigation measures were implemented in September. These included widening the footpath, upgrading over 30% of the bus fleet to Euro VI engines and introducing a one-way system for buses only. The graph below shows the average hourly fluctuation of NO2 concentrations in the Underpass over the six-month monitoring period.

The final two months (October and November) of monitoring saw improvements in concentrations related to the mitigation implemented by Lancaster University in September. This resulted in zero exceedances of the one-hour being recorded in these final two months, as well as a reduction in PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations. DustScanAQ will continue monitoring at the Underpass for a further six months, starting from the beginning of 2020. This monitoring survey will be used to inform continued mitigation measures to further improve air quality in the Underpass.

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