Innovative Multi-Mode Vapor Thermal Desorption Devices

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that, on average, approximately 15,000 workers each year in the U.S. suffer respiratory diseases caused by toxic agents in the air. As engineered materials become more dominant in construction of homes, offices and industrial buildings, the potential increases for deleterious solvent, plasticizer, and adhesive vapors infiltrating the breathable air space. Vapor monitoring technology only assess the potential for exposure; it does not track actual exposures of persons that may be in contaminated areas. Seacoast proposes to develop both portable personal monitors, worn by personnel throughout the course of a work day to assess personal exposure to hazardous vapors, and new, more versatile instrumentation for fixed-location monitoring. Seacoasts objectives is to design an adaptable vapor sampler with multiple, individually addressable sorbent tubes for short- or long-term air monitoring using commercial, off the shelf (COTS) thermal desorption tubes, along with a simple but flexible user-interface allowing the user to preprogram start, stop and flow profiles for each tube in the system, and demonstrate use of a chemical detector to trigger collection of air by the sampler.