Safe Environment Engineering (USA) manufactures a system called Life•line™ Personal Safety Monitor (PSM). It is used to protect workers in confined spaces and hazardous conditions. The wireless system provides personnel monitoring and alarming, two-way voice communication, reporting, and real-time telemetry when connected to a portable sensor/detector (gas, radiation, heat-stress, biological, etc.).
If thresholds are reached or unsafe conditions determined, visual and audible alarms are sounded to individuals, groups or the entire workforce using the product. The Life•line™ system will, based upon criteria determined by the attendant for the conditions, automatically query the individual PSM’s regularly to verify the status of the worker. If the worker does not respond within a specified period of time an alarm is sounded and the attendant can then direct emergency response personnel. At any time, the user can have full two-way voice communication with the attendant and, as an added safety feature, the attendant can ‘open’ (with the user’s knowledge) the microphone to listen in the location.
The new Personal Safety Monitor provides an interface to a variety of sensor devices through a standard RS-232, 0-5V, 4-20mA port. Monitoring devices may include; toxic gases, oxygen concentrations, thermal conditions, or radiation levels. The data collected by these devices can be transmitted, through the PSM, to the Main Monitoring Console, where the data is stored, analyzed, and reported.
The company has been delivering systems for over six years and has provides systems to the US Navy, US Air Force, Air National Guard, Electric Boat Corporation (nuclear submarines), Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Texaco, Ultramar, and many others.