Portable gas detectors are classed as a type of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), designed to keep personnel safe from gas hazards and allow mobile testing of locations before they are entered. These small devices are essential in many areas where gas hazards could occur, because they are the only means of monitoring an operator’s breathing zone continuously, whilst stationary and moving.
Although fixed gas detection does provide personnel protection in its own right, it cannot move with the operator, and this creates the possibility that the operator could enter an area beyond the detection perimeter of the fixed detector.
Many sites employ a mix of both fixed and portable gas detection, but sometimes portable gas detection is used on its own.