Air Monitoring

Background

In 2010, RPCI constructed the Aerosol Pollution Exposure Research Laboratory (APERL), which is primarily designed to assess emissions from combusted tobacco products.  The APERL is a 320 square foot laboratory that includes a 12′x10′x9′ room with controlled ventilation and environmental conditions under which experiments take place to examine various constituents of the emissions from a range of burning tobacco products. The room is also able to accommodate actual smokers in studies looking at tobacco product differences on smoker behavior. The lab has available a wide range of sophisticated air monitoring equipment to continuously measure particle mass concentration, particle counts and size distribution, active surface area of particles, particle bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), infrared and ultraviolet light absorption of particles (for Black Carbon and aromatic organic compounds), volatile organic compounds, temperature, humidity, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. In addition the laboratory is equipped with sampling pumps and flow meters so integrated air samples can be collected and analyzed.

Learn How to Conduct Secondhand Smoke Exposure Studies

Valid air monitoring studies have proven to have a profound effect on educating the public and policy makers on the dangers of secondhand smoke exposure and informing the debate around smoke-free policy initiatives. Recent technological advances have provided relatively inexpensive portable instruments, such as the TSI Sidepak AM510 Aerosol Monitor, that can measure and record in real-time the levels of tobacco smoke pollutants in the air. This online course will help researchers who have been provided a SidePak Aerosol Monitor through the Roswell Park Cancer Institute to conduct air monitoring research in their country.

Contact Mark Travers