New Modifications to Personal Sound Exposure Meter Available to New and Existing Users

Demonstrating its continued commitment to improving its range of industrial hygiene and occupational health monitoring equipment, Casella CEL (UK) (www.casellameasurement.com; 01234 844100), has announced modifications to the CEL-350 dBadge Noise Dosimeter, which will allow the user to view run information while a measurement is in progress. In addition, the newly enhanced unit can be locked to prevent results from being viewed by unauthorised personnel.

The digital, cable-free CEL-350 Series of Dosimeters or Personal Noise Exposure Meters accurately measure all occupational noise parameters, and gives the time history of an individual's noise exposure throughout the day via a built-in graphic display.

Casella CEL Market Manager, Tim Turney, explains the background behind modifications to the firmware: “A number of our larger customers have requested the ability to see what is happening while a run is in progress to allow them to make operational decisions based on the values measured so far. This can include, but is not limited to, checking an eight-hour run after two hours to see if the dosimeter has accumulated more than 25% of the allowable noise dose.”

Turney continues: “Accumulated run results are also available in terms of the time average level Lavg decibel level measured so far. Both of these values are produced with the key threshold values of 80 and 90 dB as per the OSHA workplace noise regulations.”

Previously all CEL-350 run values were suppressed on screen during a run and were not available for viewing until the run was stopped. The intention was to secure the display against being seen by the wearer and minimise the likelihood of results being falsified.

Customers now have the option of locking the unit display to prevent the results from being viewed during a run by unauthorised personnel. It is also possible to set the run to last for a fixed duration from 30 minutes up to 12 hours in 30-minute increments.

Another benefit of the changes is that a total of seven screens are now displayed individually for approximately five seconds each before moving on to the next. This allows the supervisor enough time to see the results that are of interest without having to wait too long before moving to the next screen.

Casella’s CEL-350 dBadge range also includes the ‘Lite’ model, which offers simple functionality at a very affordable price, ensuring that cost need not be a deterrent to safety.  The 'Lite' measures all the same occupational noise parameters as the original dBadge except for the time history of exposure to noise levels, so is ideal for users needing straightforward noise dose results at low cost.

Casella CEL is offering all of the latest changes as standard in future dBadge dosimeters and, as they can be reprogrammed into older CEL-350 hardware, the changed v1.13 firmware will be used to upgrade existing models.