Flood Rehabilitation and Decontamination Project Experience
Service: Flood Rehabilitation, Industrial Hygene & Environmental Monitoring Services
Location: Ayutthaya Province , Thailand
Client: Western Digital
Project Value: Confidential
Thailand experienced its worst flooding in over fifty years in 2011 and Western Digitals' hard disk drive production facility in Ayutthaya was inundated under 2m of fetid floodwater. SLP has been appointed to assist Western Digital with their flood rehabilitation/decontamination activities and provide industrial hygiene and environmental monitoring services to confirm that the decontamination works had been completed to a satisfactory standard and that all the buildings were safe for reoccupation.
SLP's scope of work includes conducting a thorough visual inspection of the entire facility and its HVAC systems for signs of potential contamination by fungal (mold), bacterial and other contaminants. Surface swab and tape samples will be collected from impacted equipment, building fabric and HVAC components for environmental microbiology testing at an American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) accredited laboratory for a range of parameters including fungi (mold) and bacterial contaminants such as faecal coliforms, E-coli and Legionella.
A walk through indoor air quality (IAQ) sampling exercise will be undertaken throughout the facility for Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and a range of toxic gases including carbon monoxide, methane and hydrogen sulphide. Indoor air quality monitoring using specialist pumps and bioaerosol sampling equipment will also be undertaken post cleanup to determine mold spore counts (and type where present) and bacterial IDs from culturable air.
The primary objective of the commissioned works is to verify the completeness and adequacy of the implemented flood rehabilitation and decontamination works and to confirm that the facility is safe to reoccupy.
Service: Flood Decontamination and Indoor Air Quality Monitoring Services
Location: Ayutthaya Province , Thailand
Client: Weatherford InternationalProject Value: Confidential
SLP was appointed by Weatherford International to design, implement, manage and verify a flood rehabilitation and restoration package of works for their facility located on the HiTech Industrial Estate in Bang Pa-In, Thailand. The facility was inundated as a result of the severe flooding experienced in Thailand in 2011 and extensive damage was incurred as a result.
The client wanted a one stop shop service and SLP were appointed to deliver a complete flood rehabilitation package of works for the facility. Our services included:
- A thorough site inspection of the flooded premises.
- The formulation of a Flood Rehabilitation Strategy.
- The appointment and supervision of the cleaning contractor.
- Production of the Health and Safety Plan for the works.
- The provision of all Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
- Indoor Air Quality monitoring upon works completion.
As a result of the flooding the buildings were extensively contaminated by mold. Mold spores represent a potential health hazard to humans by causing allergic reactions,. Some molds excrete toxic compounds called mycotoxins and certain mycotoxins can be harmful, even lethal, to humans when exposure is high enough.
SLP produced the Specification for the flood rehabilitation works and all porous building materials were stripped out of the ground floor of the facility under strictly controlled conditions prior to the buildings and HVAC systems being thoroughly cleaned with propriety decontamination agents. All staff engaged in the decontamination works utilised the appropriate Respiratory Personal Protective Equipment (RPPE) along with coveralls and gloves to limit exposure to these potentially harmful mold spores.
Once the decontamination works were completed Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) monitoring was undertaken using specialist pumps and bioaerosol sampling equipment to determine the mold spore counts within the building post cleanup. Specialist algorithms were used to assess whether the residual mold spore counts represented a potential risk to the health of the building occupants and to verify that the facility was safe for reoccupation.