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Homeland security measures - immediate detection and accurate personal exposure assessment following a malicious, intentional exposure.
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Background The retention and distribution in the body of inhaled substances during and following an intentional release can pose immediate and prolonged health consequences. An example of long term consequences follows the exposure of responders excavating the World Trade Center pit. The aerosol particle size spectrum or distribution is the major factor in determining deposition and retention of pollutants. There are presently no field samplers, either for area or personal sampling, which can measure the area wide airborne concentration and aerosol particle size spectrum of the inhaled toxic substances. Any existing laboratory instruments for aerosol size measurements are difficult to maintain, not suitable for field work, and expensive. Thus, the need for area and personal exposure samplers for airborne toxic substances is clearly expressed. Description of Project Dr. Harley has developed an Integrating Miniature Particle Size Sampler (IMP) to provide immediate detection and accurate personal exposure assessment following a malicious, intentional exposure, as well as for monitoring industrial exposure. The IMP operates in a simple, inexpensive system using only a pump and pressure gauge. It presently measures the airborne particle size spectrum from 1 to 10,000 nm. This range covers any relevant human exposure. The IMP sampler runs with a low flow rate pump even under severe weather conditions for any required sampling integration period of from hours to months depending upon the measurement urgency. The IMP contains an inlet stage that removes large particles, 6 very fine mesh stainless steel screens that filter nanometer and small size particles efficiently, and a backup filter that captures all remaining particles passing through the sampler. All filtration stages are measured for the pollutant of interest and a computer deconvolution program takes these measurements and calculates the particle size spectrum. The IMP can thus determine the concentration for total exposure and the size spectrum of any particulate airborne aerosol relevant to hazardous human exposure in a small unobtrusive package. This includes any radioactive aerosol or biological species. Applications Monitoring environmental hazard exposures in industrial locations. Homeland security measures - immediate detection and accurate personal exposure assessment following a malicious, intentional exposure.