Workplace Air Monitoring Manchester

Air monitoring for Manchester workplaces

Greater Manchester's economy mixes advanced manufacturing and engineering in Trafford Park and Oldham with a very large logistics and distribution footprint along the M60 and M62. Warehouse work brings its own exposures that are often overlooked — LPG and diesel forklift emissions in enclosed bays, cardboard and pallet dust, and shrink-wrap and adhesive fumes on packing lines.

The region also retains textile and technical fabric production, plastics processing and a growing chemical and coatings sector around Trafford and Wigan, where solvent vapour and thermal degradation products from extrusion and moulding are the main concerns.

Manchester's continuing city-centre and Salford Quays development programme adds a steady stream of construction dust and respirable crystalline silica work to our regional schedule.

Exposures we commonly measure in Manchester

Every survey is scoped to your own processes, but these are the exposures that most often drive monitoring programmes across Greater Manchester and the North West.

Forklift diesel and LPG combustion products in enclosed warehouse and loading bays
Welding and fabrication fume in engineering workshops
Solvent and styrene vapour from coatings, plastics and composites
Cotton, fibre and technical textile dust in fabric processing
Construction and silica dust on city-centre and Salford Quays developments

What workplace air monitoring covers

Workplace air monitoring measures what your employees actually breathe during normal work. Under Regulation 10 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH), employers must monitor exposure where it is needed to protect health, where a workplace exposure limit could be exceeded, or where control measures need to be shown to be working.

We sample dusts, fumes, vapours, mists and gases — including respirable crystalline silica, welding fume, inhalable and respirable dust, solvent vapours and process chemicals — using calibrated pumps worn in the breathing zone across a representative full shift, supported by static sampling to map sources around the workplace.

Samples are analysed by an accredited laboratory using the relevant MDHS or ISO method and compared with the workplace exposure limits published in HSE guidance note EH40. Compliance is judged using the BS EN 689 statistical framework rather than a single reading, and short-term (15-minute) sampling is added wherever peak tasks matter.

You receive an occupational hygiene report setting out measured concentrations, the compliance position, the adequacy of controls such as local exhaust ventilation, practical recommendations and a defined re-monitoring interval — evidence that stands up to HSE, insurers and client audits.

Areas we cover from Manchester

Manchester sits within an easy drive of most of the North West, so we can combine sampling at a Greater Manchester head site with satellite units in Cheshire, Merseyside or Lancashire in the same week.

Manchester city centre and Salford Quays

Trafford Park and Old Trafford

Oldham, Rochdale and Bury

Stockport, Bolton and Wigan

Warrington and the M62 corridor

Cheshire East and north Derbyshire

Working elsewhere in the UK? See our full list of monitoring locations or the main workplace air monitoring service page.

Arrange monitoring in Manchester

Tell us what you make, the substances involved and how many people are exposed, and we will scope a representative programme with a fixed price. Call 0800 494 7215 or request monitoring online. Prefer a visit first? You can book a site assessment or speak to a consultant.

Manchester air monitoring FAQs

Does a distribution warehouse in Greater Manchester really need air monitoring?

Often yes. Where diesel or LPG trucks operate in enclosed docks, or where dusty goods are decanted, COSHH still applies. Monitoring for carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, diesel particulate and inhalable dust is common in Trafford Park and M62 corridor sites.

Can you monitor exposure across a multi-shift Manchester operation?

Yes. Where days, nights and weekends run different product mixes we sample across shifts so the exposure picture reflects the full operating pattern, not just the day shift.

How do you report results for a Manchester site with several similar production cells?

We use BS EN 689 similar exposure groups. Cells that genuinely share the same task, material and controls are grouped and sampled proportionally, which keeps the survey affordable while remaining statistically defensible.

Workplace Air Monitoring in Manchester