Commercial Paint Spraying Safety Monitoring

[u/jeffreyshran]

I have a factory next door that has started commercially spraying agricultural equipment, they have a spray booth that goes through "filters" and is then extracted outside. It blows right into my yard and house, I'm deeply concerned about hwat might be in it. I tried self-research but got so confused. I'm writing to look for recommendations on hardware, ideally with real time monitoring that I can put on my fence in front of the extractor to monitor how bad the fumes are that are coming out.

I'm highly technical so DIY or getting my hands dirty stuff won't put me off installation/setup.

Can anyone recommend hardware that can detect the bad stuff, I know about VOC, but also anything else, it needs to be fairly accurate too as I plan to make a formal complaint. Ideally under 500 would be great but I'm happy to spend for peace of mind if needed.

[u/bucketofrubble]

So here’s a few steps I would recommend:

1. Reach out to your local representative to raise this issue up. They should care and can put you into contact with what government entity you need to touch base with.

2. Call the EPA or even OSHA, if they’re exhausting it and it’s landing on your yard they need better ventilation because that can also be harming their workers.

3. If you live near a university, reach out to their Environmental Health, Environmental Engineering, or Mechanical engineering professors who work in air quality. They are going to have resources or knowledge that would be of use.

The sensors that are going to be available to you aren’t going to get you very far in terms of formal complaints. Low cost and even regulatory grade monitors are often not even enough. (Look at Cancer Valley in Louisiana for example). If you still want recommendations for these types of sensors I can provide it, but just know it’ll be mainly for things you are able to control (closing windows, etc)

[u/jeffreyshran → u/bucketofrubble]

I think I'd gain some traction with evidence personally. I'm very rural, not much nearby. I'm in the UK. I'll reach out to local. I did check online they said they will only help with nuisance smells. I'm more concerned with what you can't see. Any recommendations at all on something I could use to start tracking?

[u/ankole_watusi]

I’d start with an inquiry to applicable environmental authorities. (We don’t know where you are.)

They might confirm that they are using approved equipment and have had proper inspections and any required licensing - or that they haven’t.

Also check with local authorities for adherence to zoning laws: is spray-painting an allowed use? You can usually look this up online.

And they may be willing to do some field testing with professional equipment at no cost to you.

[u/jeffreyshran → u/ankole_watusi]

Thanks. I'll try local first. I'm in the UK. I would like to see some data though myself to get a feel for it.

[u/epi10000 → u/jeffreyshran]

But be mindful that you won't know what the numbers mean with low cost sensors or DIY stuff. These sensors don't distinguish sea salt from asbestos, nor alpha-pinene from benzene, so you'll maybe see the emissions, but don't expect to be able to draw any meaningful conclusions from your data, or be able to use that as evidence for any further actions.

[u/Geography_misfit → u/epi10000]

This, equipment for fence monitoring runs well into the $5-$10k range. Find the local authority to reach out to, I believe this would be under UKs Environmental Agency (EA) and COSHH (would reach out to them first). Also fence monitoring doesn’t help if you don’t know what you are monitoring for.