AirPen: A Wearable Sampler for Airborne Hazards in support of Disaster Response Research

Abstract Both the global mean temperature and the frequency of climate-related disaster events are on the rise. Climate disasters can expose humans to myriad environmental hazards. For example, wildfires emit massive quantities of particulate matter (PM) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into ambient air. Prolonged periods of drought contribute to dust storms that can expose people to high concentrations of airborne soil containing transition metals, pesticides, herbicides, and microbiological hazards. Additionally, storm damage to industrial facilities and containers can result in stored VOCs being released. Despite the wide range of air pollutants to which humans can be exposed in the wake of climate-related disasters and the increasing likelihood of these disasters, the technology toolkit for assessing outdoor levels of, indoor levels of, and personal exposures to multiple air pollutants rapidly, accurately, and on a large scale during and after disasters is limited. The objective of this Phase I SBIR proposal is to commercialize a versatile, reliable, and scalable device for characterizing exposures to PM and VOC air pollution in the wake of disaster events. This small, battery- powered, and virtually-silent device—called the AirPen—can be worn by a person or deployed as a stationary monitor. The AirPen samples PM onto a filter and VOCs onto a sorbent while simultaneously logging real-time sensor data to indicate how PM, VOCs, CO2, noise, and light levels vary over time and space. The physical samples collected by the AirPen can be used to determine exact time-averaged pollutant concentrations and species-specific pollutant composition (e.g., to identify the presence of toxic metals, such as lead, in PM and carcinogens, such as formaldehyde or benzene, in gas samples). By combining spatiotemporal sensor data with time-integrated pollutant sampling, the AirPen can serve as a powerful tool for assessing human exposure and guiding efforts to mitigate disaster-related health effects. The first aim of this project is to collaborate with disaster response researchers to measure ambient PM and VOC pollution, using research prototype AirPens, in real-world demonstration projects involving wildland fires, storms, and waste disposal sites—with the end goal of gaining feedback from these collaborators on how to improve the usability, reliability, and scalability of the commercialized version of the AirPen. The second aim is to design, prototype, test, and validate the performance of improved air pump manifold and active flow control systems that will reduce the AirPen bill-of-materials, assembly, and service costs. The third aim of this project is to incorporate findings from the first two aims into a commercially-viable AirPen design that meets the needs of disaster response researchers, can collect gas samples onto a variety of different sorbent media (depending on the application), can support wireless data transmission from remote monitoring sites, and is more affordable to manufacture and assemble than the current research prototype.