A REAL-TIME AIRBORNE LEAD MONITOR FOR USE IN FIRING RANGES

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) describes a program that will design, build, and test a simple, compact, and reliable monitor for airborne lead with specific application to indoor firing ranges. This instrument will provide the unique capability of real-time monitoring of lead levels on the range. It will be small and portable and therefore will provide local lead concentrations at various locations within the firing range. Our instrument will eliminate the need for extractive sampling techniques and the subsequent off-line analysis at an analytical laboratory. The instrument uses a spark to ionize a very small volume of air within the firing range. A plasma is thus created in the spark zone and species in the plasma emit light at their characteristic colors or wavelengths. The intensity of the emission from any species can be used to determine its concentration. The spark will be generated using a simple power supply and a pair of electrodes. This will make the instrument compact and turnkey in operation. PSI has used a variant of this technique to detect lead in airborne aerosols at ppm levels. In this Phase I effort, we will design, construct, test, and calibrate a preprototype instrument that will be further refined and field tested in Phase II.