Personal Black Carbon Sampler
EMSL Project ID
38202
Abstract
The gold standard for exposure assessment of airborne particulate matter (PM) is personal sampling, which has traditionally been conducted by having subjects carry battery-operated pumps that collect airborne PM on filters. Personal sampling is advantageous since activities, which vary across people and location, can affect exposure to certain air pollutants. Personal exposures to PM components have often been observed to be greater than indoor and outdoor concentrations, with the ratio of personal to fixed site levels being anywhere from 1.1 to 10 or more depending on size fraction, activities and study location (see refs above; Fig. 1 below). Most importantly, personal sampling has traditionally collected a single filter over the sampling period, without separating exposures that occur in key locations. In addition, to keep the monitors running for 24 hrs to 48 hrs, the battery packs are relatively big, and personal PM monitors typically weigh 1.5 kg - 3 kg, limiting prior monitoring principally to adolescence and adult populations. Where younger children have been studied, concern often exists regarding the possible modification of typical behavior patterns by bulky monitoring equipment. For example, one recent study of grammar-school children in the South Bronx monitored exposures using pumps housed in rolling carry-on luggage bags. In addition, flow rates are typically 2 to 4 liter per minute (LPM) resulting in noisy systems, even among the quieter personal pumps such as that produced by BGI, Inc, which has been used in many studies.As far as we are aware, no one other than ourselves has developed a miniature personal monitor that has the ability to collect samples of airborne PM for laboratory analysis from multiple micro-environments. The ability to use a single sampler to collect personal samples from multiple locations greatly expands the types of questions that can be investigated. Further, it is light and small enough to be used by young children.
Project Details
Start Date
2009-11-23
End Date
2012-11-25
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator