Which industries always need chlorine gas detection alarms?
Contrary to popular belief, gas detectors are not classified as Category 3 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Weird right? But that doesn’t mean that they’re not important. They provide an effective warning system for workers operating in dangerous environments, so deciding on the type of gas detection system for your business isn’t always a decision you can make off the cuff.
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You don’t need any specialist expertise to be at least passingly familiar with chlorine. It’s a potent, yellow greenish gas that’s highly useful as a disinfectant and cleaning agent, but if mismanaged it can be severely dangerous to human health. If your own organisation utilises chlorine gas during any stage of your operations, it’s always a good idea to give your chlorine gas detection alarms a regular inspection as part of your standard risk assessment. Certain industries make more intensive use of chlorine gas than others, making gas alarm systems a particularly significant consideration, so if you work in any of the following sectors, it’s worth regularly evaluating your overall setup to ensure that it’s still up to scratch.
Chlorine gas detection alarms are generally common fixtures in several key environments, namely the swimming pools common to the sporting and leisure industries, water treatment plants, and manufacturing facilities. Let’s briefly examine each of them in turn.
Chlorine gas detection in swimming pools
Swimming pools make extensive use of chlorine gas as a disinfectant, as it provides a highly effective and affordable method of easily deactivating (i.e. essentially eliminating) pathogenic organisms. When chlorine is added to swimming pools, it dissolves and forms a weak acid called hypochlorous acid (HOCI), which then combines with oxygen to form hypochlorite (CIO). When paired together, these chemicals create what’s known as ‘free chlorine’, which is what sanitises the pool.
It works by breaking down the cell walls of micro-organisms like bacteria and algae, oxidising them by entering their molecules and, essentially, destroying them from the inside out. Chlorine is typically added to swimming pools in one of several ways, ranging from liquids, tablets and granules.
Comprehensive gas detection systems in water treatment plants
Chlorine is also used to great effect in water treatment works, where it’s again primarily used for disinfecting the water during the treatment process, ultimately helping to make it safe to drink. It’s been used for this purpose for more than 100 years, having first been introduced back in the Victorian age.
The amount of chlorine involved in the treatment process is tightly regulated, and water treatment plants take care to keep the levels within the amounts stipulated by World Health Organisation guidelines. Provided that the levels of the chlorine itself is kept within very these very small tolerances (which it generally is), then it’s harmless to human health.
Wastewater treatment facilities tend to incorporate chlorine gas detection alarms as part of a wider integrated system, as they typically deal with a significant range of further toxic gases during the treatment process. However, these systems need to be maintained to a meticulous degree, since if even one of them fails, it could have potentially devastating consequences.
Gas detection systems in the manufacturing sector
As well as its general hygiene functions in swimming pools and water facilities, chlorine is also utilised as a targeted disinfectant by a broad range of industrial and manufacturing organisations, used in the creation of everything from paper to paints, textiles to insecticides. The pharmaceutical industry also makes significant use of it during the manufacture of various drugs and medicines. In every one of these settings, its use needs to be tightly controlled, as its toxicity and reactivity can make it a poisonous and potentially even explosive hazard.
In short, if you use chlorine gas at any stage of your operations, then your chlorine gas detection alarms always need to be a major priority during your standard risk assessment. And if you decide you need to upgrade, replace, or even newly install a chlorine gas detection system in your premises, that’s exactly where we can help here at Gas Alarm Systems..
With more than 15 years of experience behind us, we’re market-leading experts in the design, development and maintenance of gas leak detection equipment, and our extensive range includes a number of chlorine gas detection systems for your wastewater plant or swimming pool.
Feel free to take a look at our fixed products or portable products with these links, or if you have any questions or need any advice, by all means call us on 01423 862240, and we’ll be happy to see how we can help.
