Lung Function Testing (Spirometry)
Respiratory health surveillance is a very important part of ensuring the health of workers who are employed in areas where there are airborne respiratory hazards. These come in the form of airborne dust or gasses. The most important of these dusts is silica. This is present in many forms. Silica is the most common component in sand which contains up to 80 or 90 percent silica and in turn this means that silica will be present in concrete and the cutting or sawing concrete, particularly dry cutting will cause production of dust containing silica. Further, did you know that even when wet cutting there remains a risk from the very small silica containing water droplets which can be inhaled?
Other areas where silica is found is in civil construction, quarrying and mining particularly if the material is of high silica content, for example, sandstone. Industrial processes that also generate large quantities of airborne silica are for example the processing of you manufacture stones such as Caesar stone which contains 90 percent plus silica. It is important therefore that accurate assessment of a person's lung function via spirometry is conducted on a regular basis for workers in these industries.
The Health Advantage is a QIP accredited spirometry practice. You can thus be assured that all the tests performed are performed on regularly calibrated Australian Standards. In these days of COVID you also need to be assured that the tests are performed in such a way that there is no risk of infection to a person having a spirometry performed. We achieve this by using disposable mouth pieces fitted with inline bacteriological filters.
The Health Advantage is an approved provider of spirometry under the terms of the Resources Safety and Health Queensland Guidelines. Most of you would know RSHQ as the old Coal Board. This means when having spirometry performed at The Health Advantage our policy, procedures and testing have been audited to guarantee they conform to the highest standard of accuracy and quality.
