I am a young technician and am concerned about my health working in the collision repair field. I take all the proper precautions working in the shop, wearing protective eyewear and a mask, but I still worry sometimes. Has shop air gotten cleaner over the years? What can my shop do to ensure our air is as clean as it can be? Is there any more legislation coming down the pike that will mandate more clean air for shops?
Question answered by Derrick Swain, vice president, Auto Body Division, Island Clean Air.
As long as you continue to be motivated to do the best possible thing to protect yourself from harmful
airborne particulate, you’re on the right track. And to ease your worries, it sounds like you’ve already
exceeded industry recommendations – well done!
I wouldn’t say that shop air has gotten cleaner; I think a more accurate statement is that air quality has changed. With the advent of low-VOC/waterborne paint, how and where cars are painted has changed. And the only constant here is change. As chemistry changes, paint companies release new products. The current new “big thing” is PPG’s low-VOC primer.
What will be next? Who knows? The evolution of how cars are repaired ensures there will be ongoing change to this already dynamic industry. And that can and probably will impact Indoor Air Quality.
We’re still a ways from federally mandated compliance, so until that date (Feb. 2015 was the last I heard) is established, you can be assured of new legislation and oversight. And this, too, presents its own set of pitfalls.
For example, some companies will claim to be “certified compliant,” except there is no such thing, and the
“certification” is typically from a third party that typically isn’t even officially accredited.
There are many different ways to keep your shop air clean, and one of the best places to start is to expose a common fallacy. In the good ol’ days, people would put a noisy contraption on the ceiling of their shop, only to realize that smoke rises and everything else in the shop air falls; that’s why you have dusty floors and dusty cars. So the first thing to look for is placement of the intake filters. And the rule here is, the closer to the ground, the better.
The next consideration should be, where is this dirty air going? If it’s being exhausted outside, that means permits. And if you live in a cold weather climate, that means you’ll also be exhausting your warm shop air outside, and this will increase your heating costs. Even if you don’t live in a cold weather climate, there’s an energy cost associated with running this type of equipment.
One of the most effective and economical options is a system that effectively captures the harmful airborne particulate and then recycles the air. And based on these criteria, your options get limited.
Our system meets these criteria, plus adds the flexibility of being mobile while cleaning 5,000 square feet of shop space. More information can be found on our website.
The best thing is to do exactly what you’re doing – ask questions, be aware, and take steps to ensure
you and your work environment are safe.
