Personal Ozone Monitor

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In this proposal we respond to the call by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in the PHS 2009-2 Omnibus Solicitation, Exposure Biology Program, Section 1, Technologies for Generating Precise Measures of Environmental Exposures for "new products/devices, tools, assays to improve our ability to precisely measure environmental exposures to individuals with high temporal and spatial resolution." According to the solicitation, the device should be of appropriate scale to be field deployable and/or wearable. Ozone, formed in photochemical air pollution, has well documented adverse effects on human health, including reduction of lung function and aggravation of preexisting respiratory disease such as asthma. Emergency department visits, daily hospital admissions and mortality increase during episodes of high ozone concentration. A Personal Ozone Monitor (POM) is required for environmental health studies of the physiological effects of ozone and for validating computer models of human exposure. In the Phase I project we successfully developed a small (4 x 3 x 1.5 inch), light weight (0.7 lb), low power (2.9 watts), low cost ($795 in parts), battery-operated POM based on the well established method of UV absorbance (an EPA Federal Reference Method). The pocket-sized POM has a precision and accuracy of # 2 ppb, makes new measurements every 10 s and has an internal data logger for downloading data to a personal computer. During the Phase II project proposed here, we will further improve and finalize the development of the POM to include the following: 1) dedicated ground plane on the printed circuit board to further reduce noise, 2) ruggedized, easily manufactured enclosure, 3) human interface consisting of liquid crystal display and keypad, 4) docking station with battery charger, 5) GPS for co-locating measurements with geographical coordinates, and 6) wireless communication between the POM and docking station. Firmware will be developed to support the new functions, and software will be developed for data acquisition and graphing by a computer and for uploading ozone data to the web. The efficacy and accuracy of the POM will be evaluated in personal exposure monitoring studies conducted at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Several large markets for a pocket-sized ozone monitor have been identified in addition to personal ozone monitoring; these include rapidly growing industrial applications of ozone and the Global Ozone (GO3) Project, an international educational project in which high school students build and operate an ozone monitoring station and share their data as an overlay on the Google Earth" map. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Development of a pocket-sized, battery powered Personal Ozone Monitor (POM) will be completed and evaluated as a means of measuring the time-resolved exposure of individuals during normal daily activities. The POM will facilitate physiological studies of the adverse effects of ozone, formed in air pollution, on human health.