Assessing outdoor air quality on a busy Australian campus

EnviroScience Solutions, a market-leading hazardous materials and environmental management consultancy firm, was recently asked to conduct an outdoor air quality assessment at a busy educational campus in New South Wales, Australia.

The client wished to establish an accurate baseline air quality reading ahead of a planned expansion of the Animal Studies facilities, which provide practical training in animal care and first aid. The proposed development involved converting a workshop used for construction training (e.g., mixing sand and mortar, building temporary cinderblock walls) into animal housing. This new area was expected to periodically house a combination of small animals (such as rabbits and guinea pigs) and up to three dogs, on a limited basis. On-site time for the animals would be split between indoor facilities and an outdoor play area bordering a main public road and located near a residential neighbourhood.

To ensure that nearby sensitive receptors would not be impacted by this development, EnviroScience Solutions conducted a site inspection and measured ambient dust and odour to establish a baseline. Ambient dust sampling involved collecting 15-minute samples of several particulate matter fractions, including PM₁, PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and Total Suspended Particulate (TSP), at 11 locations around the campus.

Carrying out a baseline air quality assessment on a busy campus meant working around the daily movements of the large student population. For example, a bricklaying class was in session near one of the sampling areas during the assessment period. Certain locations could only be assessed while students were on break, to ensure additional dust-generating activities didn’t skew baseline results. To achieve this, EnviroScience Solutions required a highly portable solution that could be easily deployed around a large campus on a flexible monitoring schedule.

Ambient dust measurements also had to include several particle fractions, with EnviroScience Solutions using a combination of statewide (NSW EPA) and national measurement standards as a reference. National standards used to determine relevant airborne contaminants and action levels included the National Environment Protection Measure for Ambient Air (Air NEPM) and Safe Work Australia’s “Guidance on the interpretation of workplace exposure standards for airborne contaminants” document.

All ambient dust samples were found to be well below the recommended exposure limits. Additionally, no odours were detected following a visual, olfactory, and desktop review of site conditions. Ultimately, the proposed development was assessed to be a low environmental risk due to limited animal occupancy and the implementation of several ongoing mitigation measures. These measures included daily cleaning and wetting down of outdoor areas and the installation of trees as a natural windbreak on the side bordering nearby residential receptors.

On the Ranger’s portability, EnviroScience Solutions Founding Director Juliet Duffy added, “We’re basically working across most of New South Wales, with offices throughout the state, so being able to courier our Ranger devices between offices overnight and have them on site the next day when needed is a huge plus.”

“As a multidisciplinary organization, we’re not only dealing with occupational hygiene, but also contaminated sites, environmental compliance, fire assessments, landfill monitoring, and indoor air quality studies. This could mean measuring anything from dust to carbon monoxide and dioxide, formaldehyde, VOCs, or any number of other pollutants. We’ve found the Ranger to be a hugely flexible solution, deploying it with confidence across a range of air quality applications.”