ESC was commissioned by a local government agency in Singapore to conduct an Environmental Study on mitigating measures for shipyard dorms in 2012.
About the Project
ESC was tasked to conduct a study that aims at protecting the worker’s health, which may be impacted by nearby grit blasting activities, in accordance with the National Environment Agency (NEA) protection standards for fine particle exposure (i.e. PM10 and PM2.5).
The key objective of this study is to establish an environmental baseline of specified ambient (at the open grit blasting site and 200 meters away from the blasting site boundary) and dormitory’s indoor air quality parameters within the specified survey sites and inside the workers’ dormitory.
Our Approach
The specific objective of the study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of dust abatement measures to be recommended for workers’ dormitories in order to meet the specified NEA performance standards such that the guidelines only allow workers dormitories outside the H&S buffer of 200 m from grit blasting operations can be waived.
The study illustrates the findings of the project through all its phases and included recommendations on the selected mitigation measures, the suggested guidelines for their implementations and the guidelines for the preliminary assessment to decide about the waiving of the H&S buffer rule.
The overall study has been developed through consequent stages:
- Selection of the shipyards to conduct the experimentation
- Baseline ambient air quality monitoring
- Dispersion modelling at shipyard sites
- Selection of the mitigation measures for demonstration with mock-up dormitories
- Demonstration of ambient and indoor air quality monitoring
- Presentation of recommendations and guidelines
The adopted approach involved not only ambient air quality monitoring at the selected sites, but also the following additional features:
- Concurrent ambient and indoor air quality monitoring
- Meteorological monitoring and subsequent data analysis
- Grit blasting emission estimation
- Air quality dispersion modelling
This multi-technique approach, especially with reference to air dispersion modelling and meteorological monitoring, is recommended for air quality management by the European Commission Working group for ambient air quality directives in the Guidance on assessment under the EU air quality directives – final draft (2000). In collaboration with JTC Corporation, two shipyard sites were identified for the monitoring activities and the case study development by means of mock-up dormitories.
Outcome
ESC recommended and demonstrated the effectiveness of dust abatement measures for workers’ dormitories to meet the specified NEA performance standards such that the guidelines only allow workers dormitories outside the H&S buffer of 200 m from the grit blasting operation area can be waived.