FLIR has made another new product launch in addition to its infrared thermal imagers for which it is known around the world. The company unveiled the product category at MINExpo 2012, saying that “FLIR Airtec is the first-ever, commercially-available, wearable monitor to protect miners and other at-risk workers from overexposure to diesel exhaust fumes. Using Airtec, mine operators can increase miner safety and increase confidence in a healthier environment.”

As the legal and compliance landscape evolves around this topic, using a state of the art monitor with instant readings offers a dramatically better alternative to sending samples to an outside lab. This can take days or weeks before results are delivered. This current practice makes it nearly impossible to implement real-time corrective changes to ventilation effectiveness or workplace procedures that improve breathing conditions.

The Airtec monitor is a compact and highly portable real-time elemental carbon monitor designed to determine exposure of workers in underground mines to diesel particulate material (DPM). Airtec uses a real time particle capture and light transmission method to yield elemental carbon values which closely correlate with NIOSH 5040 test results to measure EC and TC levels in underground mines. Diesel particulates are composed primarily of elemental and organic carbon, and have been found to present a health hazard. DPM levels can be high in workplaces where diesel equipment is used; particularly so in underground mines due to the enclosed workspace. Airtec is designed to allow the operator and management to take immediate, remedial action to address a problem area within a mine. Levels can also be tracked over time to determine the possibility of long term health hazards and help eliminate the risks associated with over exposure.