Industrial hygiene in Scottsdale: small plants with no EHS staff

Scottsdale's industry runs to medical devices, electronics, aviation services and specialty manufacturing. These are mostly smaller companies, and many have no EHS (environmental, health and safety) staff at all.

Our field is industrial hygiene, the discipline behind workplace air monitoring and noise surveys.

Having no EHS staff changes what a survey is for. At a large plant, an air monitoring survey feeds a program that already exists. At a 30-person company, it is often what shows whether you are required to have a program in the first place.

What we're usually asked

“Do we even need this?” That is a fair question, and often the answer is no. OSHA's standards for silica, hexavalent chromium, beryllium and formaldehyde all offer a way to meet the exposure assessment requirement without sampling. Under what OSHA calls the performance option, you can rely on objective data, provided that data truly shows what your workers breathe. The standards for lead and cadmium are stricter.

You may also not be due for monitoring yet. Each standard sets its own schedule for periodic monitoring, and the schedules differ more than people expect.

A 20-minute conversation usually settles it, and we do not charge for it.

→ How often OSHA requires air monitoring, by substance

“A customer is asking for ISO 14001.” ISO 14001 is the international standard for environmental management systems, and this request is common for suppliers to the large aerospace and semiconductor companies. It helps to know that ISO 14001:2015 was withdrawn in April 2026. If you are implementing a system for the first time, build to the 2026 edition and you avoid a transition entirely.

→ Transitioning to the 2026 edition of ISO 14001

“We got a citation.” An OSHA citation comes with an abatement date, so the work runs on a clock. The documentation goes into a government file, not a drawer.

→ OSHA cited us for no air monitoring. What now?

Aviation services at the Airpark

Aircraft maintenance, refinishing and component work bring the aerospace hazards on a smaller scale:

• Hexavalent chromium, from chromated primers
• Isocyanates, from polyurethane topcoats
• Solvents, from surface prep
• Noise, on the ramp and in the shop

These substances are no simpler to sample for because the shop is smaller. Isocyanates still require a specially treated filter, known as a derivatizing filter, and hexavalent chromium still requires the right filter for the work being done.

→ Aerospace plants · Air monitoring surveys

Practical notes

Most Scottsdale sites get their air permits from the Maricopa County Air Quality Department, not from ADEQ, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. We do not handle air permits, but it helps to know who issues yours.

What we do in Scottsdale

We work in four fields here:

• Tier II chemical inventory reporting (due March 1)
• Form R / TRI reporting (due July 1)
• Air monitoring surveys and noise surveys
• ISO consulting for environmental management (ISO 14001) and for occupational health and safety (ISO 45001)

→ Where we work