Gas detection system awarded product of the year

The Accenture Life Safety Solution, a wireless-enabled multigas detection system that helps protect workers in potentially hazardous environments, developed by Accenture, Industrial Scientific, Cisco and AeroScout, has received the industrial hygiene product of the year award from Occupational Health & Safety magazine.

The product integrates Wi-Fi and location-based technologies with multigas (hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon and oxygen) detectors. It helps companies to remotely monitor incidents and to locate workers in hazardous locations.

The solution is designed for environments such as oil and gas refineries, chemical and manufacturing plants, utilities, mines and other locations where dense steel infrastructure can make wireless safety solutions difficult to implement.

“Worker safety is a key priority for a range of industries with operations in challenging working locations,” said Massimo Pagella, Senior Executive in Accenture Plant and Automation Solutions. “This solution can help mitigate risks by continuously monitoring the environment in the plant and automatically providing feedback on abnormalities to the control centres and to management. Accenture continues to invest in R&D to broaden the range of services and capabilities the solution offers.”

The product uses multiple Wi-Fi access points to determine the location of workers. The solution, which is designed, installed and deployed specific to a location, uses a lapel-based wireless four-gas detector, as well as a panic button and a motion sensor to detect when a worker stops moving for a period of time. The solution is based on the company’s patent-pending design and integrates Industrial Scientific’s Ventis LS multigas detector and gas detection as a service solution iNet; Cisco’s Unified Wireless Network and Mobility Services Engine; and AeroScout’s Wi-Fi Tags and MobileView location management and user front-end technology.

Raghu Arunachalam, Director of Emerging Technologies at Industrial Scientific, said, “The Accenture Life Safety Solution has brought to market a revolutionary approach to gas monitoring that is capable of overseeing the safety of thousands of employees working across a large plant in real time and from a central location. We are honoured to have this unique, life-saving solution recognised as a New Product of the Year by Occupational Health & Safety magazine.”

The Occupational Health & Safety award program honours the product development achievements of companies that create products which are considered particularly noteworthy in their ability to improve workplace safety.