There has been some confusion about whether the change to the Workplace Exposure Limits (WEL) has impacted the EN12021 standard.

In October 2018, the EH40 guidelines lowered the Workplace Exposure Limit (WEL) for Carbon Monoxide from 50ppm to 20ppm.

The assumption was that this WEL would impact the compressed breathing air standard EN12021. The latest edition of EN12021 was published in 2014 suggesting there should be no more than 5ppm (roughly 10% of the WEL) of Carbon Monoxide by volume within the breathing airline during the air quality test.

Therefore, considering the changes to the WEL, it was assumed that the new limit would be around 2ppm.

HSE Requirement Confirmed

We have had some customers using the AIRQUAL-1 to carry out breathing air testing and have expressed their confusion over their test results. So we have taken steps to resolve the situation.

We spoke to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) who confirmed that the new WEL won’t impact EN12021.

The HSE state “Components given in Table 1 of EN12021 are the requirements that should be followed. For carbon monoxide, the requirement for breathing air is 5 ppm”.

Breathing Air Test Kit

The AIRQUAL-1 Breathing air quality kit tests the contaminants within breathing airlines to meet the standards set by BS EN12021. For those wearing scuba diving equipment or breathing apparatus, they require a safe supply of air. Contaminants can be drawn in from the compressor used to fill air tanks and if left untested, can potentially cause harm to those relying on breathing safe air.