Arriva already have excellent working practices in line with industry standards but to ensure complete compliance, Arriva regularly review internal practices and processes and carry out regular exposure monitoring exercises to both comply with the COSHH Regulations (2002) and to further strengthen internal practices.

AEC were appointed to undertake a programme of occupational hygiene exposure monitoring for diesel engine exhaust emissions (DEEEs) within fifteen Greater London bus depot sites and associated workshop areas and to provide relevant advice, guidance and recommendations at all stages of the programme.

During the programme AEC:

• Provided occupational hygiene consultants to undertake exposure monitoring within fifteen sites across Greater London

• Collected over 300 separate exposure monitoring samples comprising of both personal and fixed-point monitoring within the bus depots and workshop areas.

• Carried out personal monitoring on traffic controllers, during the running out of vehicles in the early morning, as well as those who had engineering responsibilities within the workshop areas.

• In order to fit in with operational hours and cause minimal disruption to staff and the site, the hygienists were on-site for 3:30am to catch the first buses of the day leaving the depot.

The Results

Once the site work was completed and the samples analysed, the findings were presented to the Arriva Health and Safety team and incorporated all monitoring data, findings, observations and guidance based on the levels observed on-site and the recommended exposure levels. Further suggestions were made regarding how to achieve best practice, and how to continue to comply with the latest legislation.

The project was undertaken to a high standard of compliance at all times ensuring all works were in line with health and safety guidelines, and incorporating best working practices. It was delivered on time, within budget and with minimal disruption to Arriva site staff or working practices.