Studying Particulate Matter Pollution using PIGE and PIXE

Particulate matter (PM) air pollution has been observed to have negative health effects on the human cardiovascular and respiratory systems. While stationary samplers have shown decreasing amounts in the United States in the past decades, it has also been shown that these samplers are not always representative of local pollution. Our goal is to use PIGE and PIXE to also study localized areas of pollution (near factories, indoor homes, etc) to better estimate personal exposure to PM pollution. 

Currently this project is in the initial testing of types of aerosol sampling and the methods to improve before larger scale analysis and measurements are done.