Gloucestershire-based safety consultancy C&G Safety & Environmental has been called in by leading diesel injector supplier Delphi to check levels of noise and airborne oil at the company's Stonehouse plant.

Delphi, which designs and manufactures high-precision electronic injection pumps for diesel engines for the worldwide automotive industry, called C&G in to check that staff in the test department are not being exposed to unsafe levels of either oil mist or noise from machinery.

Diesel injectors are constantly being tested in the department, so steps have to be taken to ensure staff are not breathing in the resulting vapour. A device with an air sampling head and filter was used to measure the concentration of oil vapour over a four-hour period.  

C&G staff issued four test department personnel with special 'noise badges' - miniature noise dosimeters which use tiny microphones to constantly measure and record noise levels. An octave band analyser was also used to indicate the spread of frequencies. Using the information the badges recorded, C&G was able to establish that staff were not being exposed to unsafe levels of noise.

"The company had taken steps to reduce exposure, but they needed to be sure that staff were properly protected" said Roger Hart, MD of C&G Safety & Environmental.