Good Morning All I have a bit of a query that I wanted to run by the forum to see if anyone else has come across something similar. We currently have some employees that are carrying out remediation works in the open air (we are a contractor working on behalf of a Principal Contractor) on a former chemical site. There are known Cresols in the ground which have an occupation exposure limit of 5ppm TWA over an 8 hour day. There are current monitoring procedures on site so the vapour release is being monitored at each excavation with a PID but if that PID reaches a certain ppm is there an instant concentration which is deemed harmful for Cresol? MSDS' I've looked at just advocate the use of respiratory equipment with either carbon filters (which we have) or air fed respirators. Similarly there is potential for petrol based hydrocarbons in another area of the site and my query again is as above. Have anyone any advice or been in a similar situation? I've looked at EH40 but that doesn't really answer my question and am also awaiting a response from manufacturer's of said chemicals. Any help would be grateful! Thanks Joanne

Thanks for your reply MEden380! Yes our operatives are wearing full PPE and also to ensure no skin exposure as we had identified that as a major route of entry. Interesting that you mention the urine sampling as I had seen this elsewhere also. We do restrict the areas of access for only those who are carrying out the works. Thanks Jo