Professor Duncan Laxen of Air Quality Consultants Ltd played a pivotal role in the production of the recently published Institute of Air Quality Management (IAQM) Guidance on the Assessment of the Impacts of Construction on Air Quality and the Determination of their Significance. The guidance, the first of its kind in the UK, is designed to assist developers, their consultants and environmental health officers in assessing the impacts of dust from construction sites.
The Guidance was produced by an IAQM Working Group chaired by Dr Claire Holman of Environ. The group was established following a meeting jointly organised by IAQM and the Building Research Establishment (BRE) on “Controlling Particles from Construction Activities” held in January 2011. Duncan Laxen gave a presentation at that meeting on how consultancies had been approaching construction dust assessments in many different ways. He was subsequently part of the small Drafting Subgroup.
The guidance, which can be found at here, includes a methodology for assessing the significance of construction dust impacts. This involves following a 3-stage process, with the emphasis on classifying sites according to the risk of effects, and identifying the mitigation appropriate to the risk.
Air Quality Consultants Ltd is now applying the new methodology to its assessments of construction dusts and hopes that others will follow suit.