Scientific Services Ltd services

Our UKAS accredited, asbestos air testing and four stage clearance services are all carried out in accordance with ISO 17025. Strategically positioned asbestos consultants based in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, equipped with mobile laboratories, enable us to provide air testing services throughout the South West, into Cardiff and as far east as Southampton both efficiently and competitively. To facilitate information transfer, we have developed innovative IT systems - a typed, signed asbestos air test report is readily available on site, and this can then be instantly emailed back to our head office for distribution to all relevant stakeholders.

Our UKAS-accredited, asbestos bulk testing services are carried out in accordance with ISO/IEC 17025: 2005. Using stereo microscopy, polarised light microscopy and dispersion staining to test bulk samples, everything we do, not only complies with our in-house procedures, but also with the techniques set out in HSG 248. Through our asbestos bulk analysis laboratory we deliver accurate, consistent results and test for asbestos in an array of material types.

Do you have a suspicious material within your property, or within premises that you are responsible for managing?. Would you like to appoint an experienced, professional asbestos company to sample the potential asbestos containing material for testing? his is where we can help - one of our BOHS P402 qualified asbestos consultants can attend site and provide an asbestos sampling service. All of our bulk material sampling work is undertaken in line with the techniques set out in HSG 264. And once collected the bulk samples will then be transported to our UKAS accredited laboratory, where a bulk analysis test will determine if the sample contains asbestos.

If you wish to have UKAS accredited microbiological water tests or chemistry tests completed on a water source then look no further. Scientific Services can arrange for water testing on private water supplies such as bore holes and springs, as well as for private distribution systems that take water from the mains and further distribute it to others for human consumption.

Do you need to appoint a competent person to complete a Legionella Risk Assessment?The Health and Safety Executive`s approved code of practice and guidance for Legionella applies to: `any undertaking involving a work activity and to premises controlled in connection with a trade, business or other undertaking where water is used or stored and where there is a means of creating and transmitting water droplets which may be inhaled, thereby causing a reasonably foreseeable risk of exposure to Legionella bacteria. So if you have water on your site that people can be exposed to, a Legionella risk assessment should be in place to assess and manage the risk of Legionella bacteria.

Testing for Legionella can form part of a programme for managing the risk of Legionnaires` disease. Your Legionella risk assessment should provide direction on the Legionella testing required at your site. Further guidance can be found in the HSE`s publications: `The Control of legionella bacteria in water systems - Approved Code of Practice and guidance (L8)` and `HSG274`. Testing for Legionella could assist in identifying possible sources of infection and highlights water system issues which may require action.

Our consultants bring up to twenty years` experience, as well as a breadth of understanding of a wide range of scientific fields, to our laboratory auditing work. This is why we`re so well placed to carry out laboratory audits of food, environmental microbiology, and asbestos laboratories. The thorough assessment and consultative process that our consultants adopt, provide an independent analysis of your capabilities. The audit comprises of an evaluation of laboratory systems as an extension to ISO: 17025 accreditations, and auditing of specific laboratory methods to EU Guidelines and other key criteria.

We can arrange for materials such as plaster to be tested for anthrax. You may require anthrax testing as hair has been used as an ingredient in internal plaster for centuries. Routine disinfection controls have been in existence since 1919, but despite this, there is no guarantee that hair found in plaster used within construction before this time will not have anthrax spore contamination. Our Technical Team can provide free, impartial advice about your testing requirements and suggest sampling techniques and procedures that can be adopted to reduce the risk of anthrax related infections.