A few generations ago, gas detectors and radiation detectors like those made by RAE systems were such a specific type of safety equipment that very few people outside of one or two industries had even heard about them. Today, however, the use of atmospheric monitoring equipment is used in so many different industries and businesses that almost everyone has either heard about it or seen it in use. It's even been featured numerous times in movies and television programs highlighting the need for extreme vigilance concerning atmospheric contaminants.



The earliest industries that were concerned with contamination of the air were mostly research facilities, since these were the places that these new, highly volatile compounds were generally developed and/or worked with; but today you'll find atmospheric monitoring being used in a variety of different arenas, including:

• Industrial Facilities. Industry today uses literally thousands of chemical and hazardous compounds in order to manufacture safe, high quality products. Industrial sites also require fuels and produce by-products that may lead to illness or other problems if not properly monitored and controlled.

• Research Labs. These are still at the forefront of development and discovery of everything from new products to treatments and cures for serious and life-threatening diseases. Working with volatile or radioactive compounds in a highly controlled environment requires proper use of safety equipment at all times.

• Irradiation of Foods. Many food products today are irradiated to kill off potentially dangerous microbes, viruses and fungi and to preserve some foods for longer periods of time. While there are a variety of processes used, each of them use forms of radiation that can be potentially harmful if they are leaked or improperly contained. Proper containment and monitoring ensures that the irradiation process makes food safer and keeps workers healthy at the same time.

• Consumer Manufacturing. Products made from plastics and other materials that can't be heated are often sterilized with a process called “cold sterilization” that uses gamma radiation from Cobalt 60. This process sterilizes everything from baby powder to cosmetics. Radiation is also used to detect leaks in pipes and to check for stress fractures to test the integrity of welds in metals and other materials. This is particularly important for manufacturing airplanes, trains and other locomotion devices.

Glow-in-the-dark dials on clocks and radios, camping lanterns and instrument panels are all manufactured using radioactive materials. Workers in facilities where thousands of these products are made on a steady schedule rely on safety teams that use RAE systems to make sure that their working environment is safe.

• Medical Facilities. X-rays, CAT scans, PET scans, MRIs and radiation treatment of various cancers all rely on using radioactive materials. In the great majority of cases, the advantages are orders of magnitude greater than any risk; however, when there is a problem with equipment, Minirae technology and other testing procedures keep medical personnel and patients safer.

In today's increasingly complex world, the use of various forms of gas and radiation contributes to the improvement of our health and standard of living. Making sure that working with these volatile substances doesn't do more harm than good is why atmospheric monitoring is increasingly important. First response teams, safety personnel, and environmental monitoring teams all rely on this monitoring to keep things in balance.