This week our Associate Director, Simon Corbey met with Lester Keepper, CEO of Prism Analytical Technologies, a leading air testing service provider based in Michigan, USA. Lester was visiting the UK with a view to establishing a UK test centre for indoor air quality testing.
Prism are based in a private laboratory at Central Michigan University and have completed 27,000 indoor air quality tests and 15,000 formaldehyde tests over the last 4 years.
Lester explained that they collect samples using a tri-matrix tube which is supplied with a diaphragm pump. Over two hours this delivers 24 litres of indoor air across the tube, with a single test sufficient for 200m2 of floor space.
He prided himself on the sensitivity and accuracy of their test kit, which has been developed in-house. There are 22 test indicators such as for specific issues like mould, and bespoke tests can be developed depending on the individual concerns.
This service is available in the UK from our member Waverton Analytics. Tim Robinson, Director at Waverton Analytics is speaking at our Healthy Buildings Conference and Expo on February 15th 2017 at UCL, London. Tim will describe a recent case study where extremely high levels of formaldehyde were recorded in a Manchester school, with levels ten times above WHO guidelines, even after 12 months of occupation.
Lester has promised to offer some insight into the key findings from their work in the US and we will be featuring this in our January newsletter.