Hazardous air pollutants like benzene found in gasoline have been linked to cancer, asthma, autism, reduced fertility, and lower intelligence in humans.
Hazardous air pollutants like benzene found in gasoline have been linked to cancer, asthma, autism, reduced fertility, and lower intelligence in humans.
With a $2.3 million award from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, an interdisciplinary team of Virginia Tech researchers led by Masoud Agah, the Virginia Microelectronics Consortium Professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is working to revolutionize a testing process for these harmful pollutants, in particular for truck drivers.
According to Agah, a renowned researcher in chip-scale gas chromatography and Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation Faculty Fellow, the development of effective strategies for reducing occupational exposure to pollutants requires accurate, time-resolved measurement of exposure.
Current practice typically requires collection of an air sample using specialized equipment, transport of the sample to the lab, and time-consuming analysis using expensive equipment to identify and quantify the pollutants present in the environment. The results are not available for several days, and they only provide an average measure of a worker’s exposure.
Read more at Virginia Tech
Photo: Greg Atkins for Virginia Tech
