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March 22, 2013

Reacquaint With the Importance of Air Monitoring

The air monitoring training courses Mastery provides are designed to provide training to emergency responders who carry out atmospheric sampling activities when a HAZMAT incident occurs.  These courses are split into two programs; “Air Monitoring: Contamination Assessment,” and “Air Monitoring: Direct Reading Instruments.”
The first air monitoring course on contamination assessment covers why air monitoring is necessary, how to size up and prepare for air monitoring and how monitoring is carried out.  It also shares where air contaminants can originate from, which include;

  • Gases
  • Vapors
  • Particulates
  • Aerosols
  • Fumes
  • Products of combustion
  • Radiation

Next, the direct reading instruments course takes a closer look at instruments used for air monitoring, how they work, how to interpret the readings and how to avoid common problems.  When properly calibrated, used and interpreted, direct reading instruments can help emergency responders react to hazardous materials incidents safely, as well as help protect the community and environment.  The course explains the following instruments and topics:

  • Combustible gas indicators
  • Calibration and readings
  • Oxygen indicators
  • O2, operation, use and readings
  • Detector tubes
  • Survey instruments
  • Monitoring with PID and FID
  • Radiation detectors
  • Radiation readings and use


Contaminated atmospheres have one or more hazards which can be composed of; toxic, flammable, reactive, oxygen-enriched, oxygen-deficient, and radioactive properties.  It is imperative to understand how to gather this information of the surrounding air.  This air will present hazards to civilians, emergency respondents and the environment if the proper safety measures are not taken.

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