A Wearable Wireless System for Real-Time Monitoring of Chemical Toxicants

描述（由申请人提供）：有证据表明，最近慢性病的增加，如哮喘、某些类型的癌症、糖尿病和自闭症，与个人接触各种环境污染物有关。为了充分确定疾病与特定污染物之间的相关性，需要新的工具来测量个人环境暴露。作为对这一需求的回应，一个跨学科团队已经组建起来，开发、构建和测试一种可穿戴无线传感器系统，用于实时检测空气中的有毒挥发性有机化合物，这项工作得到了NIH/NIEHS基因环境倡议（GEI）计划的支持。在过去两年中，在实现最终目标方面取得了实质性进展。重要成果包括成功开发可穿戴设备，可实时检测ppbV级环境污染物；所述可穿戴设备与可接收、处理、显示和存储所述传感器数据的手机进行无缝通信；并演示了可穿戴无线传感器系统在室内、加油站和机场的实际应用。在此成功的基础上，该修订项目将通过探索两个特别令人兴奋的新机会来扩大母体资助的范围：1)开发一种新的苯、甲苯、乙苯和二甲苯（BTEX）混合检测方法，该方法可以为确定个人暴露水平提供无与伦比的性能；2)与流行病学家合作，将新的传感工具应用于现有的交通相关空气污染人口研究的子集，交通相关空气污染是哮喘等常见疾病的主要原因。混合检测单元将被建立并集成到现有的可穿戴设备中，协同工作，为流行病学家提供新的重要功能。需要指出的是，目前的商用仪器不仅体积庞大、价格昂贵，而且缺乏对低ppb水平BTEX的检测和分析选择性，因此不适合流行病学研究。与流行病学家的合作将加速从研发到实地测试和验证的过渡。这项修订工作还将创造就业机会，并将技术从大学转移到企业。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Evidence has shown that the recent increases in chronic diseases, such as asthma, certain type of cancers, diabetes and autism, are linked to the exposure of individuals to various environmental pollutants. In order to fully establish the correlation between a disease and a specific pollutant, new tools to measure personal environmental exposures are required. As a response to this need, an interdisciplinary team has been assembled to develop, build and test a wearable wireless sensor system for real time detection of toxic volatile organic compounds in air,-and the effort has been supported by the NIH/NIEHS Gene-Environment Initiative (GEI) program. Over the past two years, substantial advances have been made towards the final goal. Important achievements include successfully development of a wearable device that can detect ppbV level environmental pollutants in real time; seamless communication of the wearable device with a cell phone that can receive, process, display and store the sensor data; and demonstration of the wearable wireless sensor system for real world applications at indoors, gas stations and airport. Building upon the success, this revision project will expand the scope of the parent grant by exploring two particularly exciting new opportunities: 1 )development of a new hybrid detection method for Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylenes (BTEX) that can provide unparalleled performance for determining personal exposure levels; and 2) working with epidemiologists to apply the new sensing tools to subsets of existing population studies of traffic-related air pollution, a primary cause of common diseases such as asthma. The hybrid detection unit will be built and integrated into the existing wearable device to work synergistically, providing new important functions to epidemiologists. It should be noted that the current commercial devices not only are bulky and expensive but also lack the selectivity to detect and analyze low ppb-levels of BTEX, which are thus not suitable for the epidemiology studies. The collaboration with epidemiologists will accelerate the transition from research and development to field test and validation. This revision effort will also lead to job creation and technology transfer from universities to industry. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: A novel approach will be developed to detect, quantify and identify BTEX associated with road traffic activities. The approach is designed to provide otherwise unavailable high quality chemical exposure information and serve as a tool to dramatically advance epidemiological and occupational studies.