Canadian hospital uses Ion Science Tiger VOC Detector to ensure safe working environmental for employees

Handheld photoionisation (PID) instrument used to monitor emissions from housekeeping products such as paints, adhesives and new furniture.

In a move designed to help ensure the on-going health and safety of its 4000-strong workforce, especially those with known chemical sensitivities, Canada’s St Boniface Hospital has ordered a handheld Tiger volatile organic compound (VOC) detector from Ion Science.

The high performance PID instrument is being used by the tertiary care facility to monitor levels of potentially harmful emissions from housekeeping products such as paints, adhesives, floor coatings, new furniture and sanitizers.

Ion Science’s Tiger will be used several times a month by St Boniface Hospital’s health & safety team to obtain a single snapshot reading and for logging data which is then downloaded and converted into graph format for inclusion in hygiene surveys. These are then reported across the department that has been monitored.

Taras Stecy, Safety Co-ordinator at St Boniface Hospital says: “We are committed to providing a safe working environment for our staff and patients alike. We had a few issues with VOC levels in the past so decided to introduce an on-going monitoring process. Plus we know that some staff have sensitivities to VOCs and felt an obligation to protect them from the risk of overexposure.

Taras continues: “We purchased the Tiger from Ion Science’s Canadian distributor, Levitt Safety. They offered advice on the most suitable instrument and also provided training to our entire safety group. This hands-on demonstration was extremely useful as it enabled all of us to practice using the equipment.”

A robust hand held VOC detector, Tiger provides a dynamic detection range of 1 parts per billion (ppb) to 20,000 parts per million (ppm), offering the widest measurement range of any other VOC instrument on the market.

Tiger leads the way with its humidity and contamination resistant PID technology, proven to be the best performing against competing instruments in humid and contaminated environments, providing the most stable, repeatable readings.

John Dodd, Health & Safety Assistant at St Boniface Hospital adds: “The Tiger is easy to use and the menu setup is great as it allows less proficient or technical users to operate it fairly easily. It is early days but so far it seems reliable and relatively maintenance free. I think the whole team would recommend the Tiger to other hospitals or healthcare facilities. It has a quick start up and is very user friendly.”

Ion Science’s Tiger has the fastest response time on the market (two seconds), can be connected directly to a PC via the USB and has ATEX, IECEx, UL and CSA certification.