About Us | Expert Dust & Air Quality Consultancy

Planning & Operational Support

DustScanAQ is an independent, employee-owned dust and air quality consultancy that specialises in monitoring and assessment. We were established in 2004. Our experienced consultants provide expert dust and air quality services to clients in a wide range of sectors including assessments and management plans of dust, air quality and odour. We provide planning and operational support for small to large scale projects including those that require detailed Environmental Impact Assessment. We supply a range of dust and air quality monitoring equipment, and our services also include occupational exposure and indoor air quality assessments, elemental and chemical dust analysis and dispersion modelling.

Established in 2004

The use of ‘sticky pads’ to monitor dust dates back to the early 1980’s; analysis was initially achieved using smoke stain reflectometry. DustScan analytical software was first developed by Farnfield and Birch at the Department for Mining and Minerals at the University of Leeds in 1997. The software was designed to analyse computerised images of exposed sticky pads captured on a flat-bed scanner.

In the year 2000, Professor Geoffrey Walton of GWP Consultants developed the DustScan business concept with the University of Leeds and this became a Teaching Company Scheme (TCS) project. The project aim was to refine and develop existing sticky pad dust monitoring equipment. DustScan methodology was subsequently validated through work funded by the Mineral Industry Sustainable Technology (MIST) award.

The DustScan directional sticky pad monitoring system was launched at the Hillhead quarrying exhibition in 2003 and DustScan Ltd was established on 28th January 2004. The original business concept involved the manufacture, sale and installation of low-cost dust monitoring equipment (mainly to clients in the minerals industry) and the subsequent analysis and reporting of exposed sticky pad samples. In the same year, the MIST project report was issued to the Minerals Industry Research Organisation (MIRO), Defra.

Our History

In 2006, a low-cost, entry-level filter reference PM₁₀ monitoring system was developed in conjunction with Biontech Ltd and the firm added rudimentary air quality monitoring to its capabilities. In 2007, DustScan supported and supervised a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project at the University of Portsmouth that sought to develop empirical dust dispersion mapping techniques using geochemical dust data. In the same year and extending into 2008, DustScan received funding from Finance South East to develop and validate a new sticky pad adhesive, more suitable for collecting depositional samples and further analyses such as gravimetry, microscopy and characterisation.

DustScan incorporated the business of Alex Grant AirQ in 2012, an independent dust consultant working mainly for minerals industry clients. In 2013, DustScan and the University of Portsmouth received funding from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) to support a KTP project that sought to develop a predictive dust modelling technique. The firms sample management and analysis software was also updated (to ‘DustScan2’, or ‘DS2’) in 2013 and the first stand-alone air quality assessment reports were produced. The first workplace air quality/exposure assessment report was prepared in 2014.

In 2017 DustScan Ltd began trading as DustScanAQ to reflect the teams’ growing expertise in ambient air quality assessment work and the firm prioritised and invested in the development of its air quality service. In December 2018, the firm’s founder Dr Geoffrey Walton transferred his shares of the business into an Employee-Ownership Trust (EOT) and DustScanAQ became an Employee-Owned Business (EOB). In 2021, the EOT completed the purchase of the business from Dr Walton. In the same year the business moved to new premises in Witney from Charlbury, Oxfordshire, where it has been based since it was established.