Posted By Alison Elcock Colleagues, Can anyone direct me to air quality standards or other OSH standards for working in underground caves? Alison

Posted By Dave Todd Yes. There are Two governing bodies responsible for the air quality in underground caves : 1: The Big Fella upstairs; whose accomplishments include creation, And, 2: Mother Nature; for daring to interfere with his good work. Hope this is helpful................

Posted By Dave Merchant Paul Leadbetter's correct - if there is any restriction on ventilation then the site would be a confined space under the UK Regulations (I assume you're in the UK), and if not, not. I've seen people carry gas monitors and escape sets into a shallow depression in a cliff because "it's a cave, ain't it!" and people overcome by CO2 in sight of daylight. Radon is a concern only for certain areas of the UK and certain types of work (regular long-duration jobs like outdoor instructors have problems but a 1-hour trip will usually give you less radiation exposure than an Easyjet flight to Paris). Far more commonplace is pooling of CO2 and SO2 or fumes drawn from work activities (generators near entrances etc), and sometimes the restrictions on movement caused by hefting CS equipment about can cause more accidents than they solve. If you email me with a few more details I'll be able to answer better. This kind of thing's what I do.

Posted By alan brotherton I would regard a workplace as a workplace be it an office or a cave. Also agree thar radon is a particular issue which needs to be addressed (Exposure varies with geographical location and strata etc.) I think I read somewhere sometime ago about a show cave in Derbyshire having to implement some form of monitoring and control.