A Rugged Low Weight Air Quality Monitoring Unit for Wildland Firefighters

Assessment of wildland fire smoke exposure is a genuine concern to fire managers public healthofficials air quality regulators and the public. Exposure to vegetation fire smoke products posesacute and chronic health hazards to first line responders firefighters and to communities locateddownwind of their source. Current instrumentation capable of providing reliable air quality data isexpensive and impractical for direct field operation.In this project Creare proposes to develop a wearable rugged low-weight high-accuracyair-quality measurement tool. Our device integrates multiple sensors to monitor all major firepollutants. Sampled data is instantly broadcast to mobile devices empowering fire managers withthe capability to monitor real-time exposure levels for individual firefighters. During Phase I wewill fabricate a prototype that includes modular electronics and user-friendly software; and we willdemonstrate its capability in a prescribed burn carried out by our collaborators. During Phase II wewill develop a wearable prototype and acquire firefighter data in prescribed burns at key locationsthroughout the U.S.