FOLLOWING THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOUND LEVEL METER APPS
The smartphone is one of the technological developments that has taken the world by storm over the last decade. Statistics released in June 2016 forecast the number of smartphone users to grow from 2.1 billion in 2016 to around 2.5 billion in 2019, with just over 36 percent of the world’s population projected to use a smartphone by 2018. In addition, app downloads reached nearly 200 billion in 2017 and are expected to reach over 350 billion by 2021.

It is no surprise, then, that the smartphone is cited by many industrial hygienists as their favorite piece of work equipment. Industrial hygienists can use smartphones to make notes and take photographs while on site, email measurement results to colleagues, access websites for guidance, and even make the occasional phone call.

WE’VE GOT AN APP FOR THAT?
It should also come as no surprise that there are hundreds of sound level meter apps available. As a manufacturer of professional sound level meters, Casella urges users to exercise some caution (we would say that, wouldn’t we?). But we don’t want to appear Luddite in our actions. (The Luddites were a radical group of English textile workers in the 19th century who destroyed weaving machinery that they believed was threatening their jobs. This was a form of protest against the use of machinery in a “fraudulent and deceitful manner” to get around standard labor practices.) Buying instrumentation that claims to meet a standard is already a case of “buyer beware.” Products often only get “found out” when tested by a capable, ISO 17025-approved verification laboratory.

Indeed, there are many benefits of using an app with common tools of the industrial hygiene trade. For example, apps used with noise dosimeters or personal air sampling pumps can warn of low battery or a failed measurement and can run remotely from a discrete distance without having to disturb the worker. This improves the productivity of both the industrial hygienist and worker alike; there is nothing worse than having to repeat a measurement or miss a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity.

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