Vapour Intrusion: Ensuring Worker Safety - Case Study
Site Challenge
Workers at a facility noted transient odours and were concerned that vapours were entering the workspace from a nearby source. The client and their team hypothesized that the transient vapour entry might be linked to site activities, such as deliveries on-site. The client`s consultant had conducted soil vapour sampling using a Photo-lonization Detector (PID) over the 2022 calendar year; however, the client suspected that the PID data might be inconsistent. Due to the nature of the concern, the customer required a robust way of tracking indoor vapour concentrations and linking them to site activity.
Solution
LiORA deployed a Vapour Sensor into the facility`s ventilation stack. Over 16 months, LIORA`s Vapour Sensor provided -69,000 data points. LIORA and the client used this strong data set to assess potential site activities linked to vapour intrusion.
Results
- The Vapour Sensor collected more than 69,000 data points.
- The data stream confirmed no risk to worker safety (Figure 1).
- Site activities slightly increased vapour concentrations 2 hours post activity.
- Trust and respect were built with the on-site workers as data confirmed their observations of fuel smell but indicated that it was not a health risk.
The high-frequency data collected every 10 minutes by LiORA`s Vapour Sensor, created a compelling story of vapour intrusion and site activities. In comparison with the point-in-time PID results at the site (Figure 1), the Vapour Sensor data reveals a background that is consistently undergoing small changes in concentration. The large data set enabled LIORA to use advanced statistical approaches with the client to identify site activities that may contribute to the occasional spikes.