Following successful pilot projects in several German cities, SGS INSTITUT FRESENIUS GmbH and Palas GmbH are expanding their partnership cooperation to include the area of outdoor air measurements
Karlsruhe/Longuich. Together, SGS INSTITUT FRESENIUS and Palas® help to control possible impairments caused by fine dust from construction, demolition or dismantling work. This enables more effective and (energy-) efficient dust prevention. To improve occupational safety and immission protection, SGS INSTITUT FRESENIUS works closely with planning offices and the companies which carrying out the work on site, carries out local measurements using measuring technology from Palas® and takes care of the necessary documentation.
An analysis that took place as part of the “London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (LAEI) 2019” shows how relevant construction sites can be with regard to particulate matter pollution in a city: 30% of the fine dust fraction PM10 originates from construction sites. In addition, depending on the material moved or processed, hazardous substances can be distributed over large areas.
Fine dust as a health-relevant factor in the outside air became a bigger focus than ever before: Therefore numerous cities and communities pay attention to local-temporal emission sources in addition to existing air pollution control measures, in particular to protect the justified interests of residents by prescribing project-specific air quality monitoring in the course of the approval procedure. However, this is often done by reference to the Bergerhoff method, which describes the analysis of collected dust precipitation after a defined period of time. Even though this is useful for chemical content analysis, it is not suitable for optimizing processes on the construction site in terms of dust prevention or even for providing authorities and residents with relevant measurement data and further information on actual fine dust pollution in a timely manner.
Particularly in the case of demolition projects in inner-city areas or large-scale dismantling projects with contaminated building materials and soils, it is essential to keep a constant eye on the effectiveness of the dust-preventing or dust-reducing measures implemented and to ensure the ability of the construction site operator to respond. Not least for reasons of energy efficiency, dust-reducing measures should be applied at the same time as needed – this is also made possible by continuous measurements in real time. Wolfgang Schreier, Division Manager NonLab in SGS’s Industries & Environment business unit, points out the additional customer benefits: “With outdoor air measurements as an addition to our range of services, which already includes soil and water analysis, we will be offering everything from a single source in future. This considerably simplifies the processes for the project partners in their day-to-day business”.
At the same time, it is often useful to share current measured values with residents via a special project website, for example. This is easy to implement through the cloud-based data management of Palas® and contributes to improved communication between all stakeholders involved in a construction project. “Owners, investors and construction site operators should definitely evaluate the holistic concept, which addresses the factors of occupational health and safety, immission protection, energy efficiency and external communication, from an ESG perspective as well and identify associated opportunities,” says Claudio Heitkamp, Director of Strategy and Business Development at Palas®, summarizing the approach.
About Palas®
Palas GmbH is a leading developer and manufacturer of high-precision instruments for the generation, measurement and characterization of particles in the air. With numerous active patents, Palas® develops technologically leading and certified fine dust and nanoparticle measuring instruments, aerosol spectrometers, generators and sensors as well as associated systems and software solutions. Palas® was founded in 1983 and employs about 100 people at its headquarters in Karlsruhe.
About SGS INSTITUT FRESENIUS
SGS INSTITUT FRESENIUS is part of the SGS Group, the world’s leading testing, inspection and certification company. With more than 97,000 employees, SGS operates a network of more than 2,700 offices and laboratories worldwide. SGS ensures that products and services comply with global standards and local regulations. Thanks to its worldwide network of experts with local knowledge combined with unparalleled experience and expertise in practical every sector, SGS’s services cover the entire supply chain from raw materials to end use.
Press Contact:
Palas GmbH
Sarah Kunath
Corporate Communications
Phone: +49 721 96213 132
E-Mail: sarah.kunath@palas.de
