• CoGDEM Comment - CoGDEM Presentation at the 2016 BCGA Conference

Gas Detection

CoGDEM Comment - CoGDEM Presentation at the 2016 BCGA Conference

May 04 2016

CoGDEM is the Council of Gas Detection and Environmental Monitoring, a trade association with a membership of around sixty companies involved in the gas detection industry.  We are pleased to have ILM/ETP (the publishers of this IET magazine) as an Associate Member, so we now place a regular column of news from the gas detection industry in IET magazine.

CoGDEM was asked to deliver a presentation to the annual conference of the British Compressed Gases Association (BCGA), held in April 2016 in Leeds, UK. The presentation updated the audience on how CoGDEM members’ workplace gas detectors are reliant on BCGA members’ gas cylinders for calibration and functional testing.

The relevant legislation and guidance were explored, with particular mention made of the Health and Safety at Work Act, COSHH, EH40 and the Confined Space Entry Regulations. Then there was a detailed look at the specific guidance available to users of portable gas detection, firstly EN 60079-29-2:2015 covering portable flammable gas and oxygen detectors. Clause 9.2.2 states:

“Inspection and functional checks are intended to verify that the equipment is in a working state. It is recommended that they are done by personnel actually operating the equipment, and is performed before each day of use, particularly if the equipment has catalytic, electrochemical, or semiconductor sensors and is being used under arduous conditions.”

Similar guidance covering toxic gas detectors is contained within EN 45544-4:2016 which states that manufacturer’s instructions must include:

“……for personal and portable apparatus, the requirement and method for performing a functional check with gas before each day of use”

The implications of both statements are clear: portable gas detection equipment should be checked daily using an appropriate gas. The gas is likely to be from a traceable cylinder, but the presentation went on to inform the audience that the instrument makers now offer ancillary equipment for gas-testing their products in an automated or semi-automated fashion. This allows the testing to be achieved using a technique that is simple, reliable, quick, low cost and traceable.

The audience was told that such functional checking (also known as ‘bump-testing’ or gas-testing’) is not the same as calibration, although the user can be confident that the instrument is in good working order if the alarm sounds when the test-gas is applied, assuming that the concentration of the gas has been chosen to be just slightly higher than the alarm activation threshold.

The presentation pointed out that CoGDEM member companies have developed innovative smart fixed detectors with sophisticated algorithms to make in-situ testing a less onerous task. For example, one family of fixed toxic gas detectors has a small gas generator built into the sensor housing so that an automatic burst of gas can be shown to the sensor and its response noted, calling for attention if required.

The audience was reminded that further guidance on this and other subjects related to hazardous gas detection in the workplace was available from the two EN standards listed above, as well as from ‘The CoGDEM Guide to Gas Detection’, a hardback reference book available from the publishers of this magazine.


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