Exposure and Environmental Analysis Service

Purpose & Services Offered

The Exposure and Environmental Analyzes Service provides exposure assessment equipment, design of experimental apparatus, laboratory analyzes of environmental and biological samples, support for methods development and pilot data, as well as training for researchers and students. The service maintains facilities such as clean rooms and exposure chambers

Access information

Please contact John Spengler, James Shine or Stephanie Shore for guidance to the appropriate laboratory or facility maintained by this service.

Equipment

Examples of analysis provide by the four laboratories of the service are highlighted here:

Organic Chemistry

organochlorine
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
polybrominated diphynl ethers (PBDEs)
aldehydes
polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)
metaoblies of PAH, naphthalene, pesticides

Inorganic Chemistry

particle mass and number counts by fractionated sizes
black carbon, sulfate, nitrates, ammonium, acidity

Trace Metals

biological (human, vegetation, food, fish and animal) and environmental (water, air, dust, soil and sediment) measurements of metals (e.g., Pb, Cd, As, Mn, Cr, Ni, Zn, Hg)

Environmental Microbiology

fungal and bacterial cultures and identification
vaccinia and influenza viruses
endotoxin
allergens (cat, mite, mouse, dog, cockroach, alternaria)

In addition to the laboratory instruments this service maintains equipment for field and chamber studies.

Equipment and Examples of Use for the Engineering/Physiology Group

The following facilities supporting the Center research are also maintained by the service: The Microbalance Room is a temperature and humidity controlled environment for precise electronic microbalance mass measurements. The Harvard Fine Particle Concentrators supply inhalation exposure chambers with test environments where ambient particle concentrations have been increased by up to 50 times. The four Inhalation Chambers are used for exposures of animals (<=20kg) to air pollutants while continuously monitoring several physiologic responses. The Bioaerosol Test Chamber is used for full-room scale evaluation of survival studies of aerosolized infectious organisms. Ultra Clean Lab facilities provide contaminant-free conditions for sample preparation for trace metal analyzes. A Mobile Laboratory that transports sampling equipment, conditioning chambers and animal exposure chambers to investigate the effects of actual emissions from power plants.

In addition, the service arranges access to analysis and research support available elsewhere. Through close collaborations with Boston University, our HSPH Center faculty have access to a newly installed High Resolution ICP/MS at their Medical School and the scientific instrument Machine Shop in their Physics Department.