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Browsing Theses and Dissertations by Author "Anderson, Georgiana Brooke, committee member"

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    Low-cost devices for occupational and environmental exposure assessment
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Quinn, Casey, author; Volckens, John, advisor; Henry, Charles, advisor; Magzamen, Sheryl, committee member; Anderson, Georgiana Brooke, committee member; Reynolds, Stephen, committee member
    The measurement of chemical and physical stressors in occupational and environmental settings traditionally requires sophisticated equipment, trained professionals, and laboratory-based analyses. These requirements are cost and time prohibitive and, thus, limit the quantity and frequency of exposure monitoring. This dissertation focuses on the development of low-cost monitoring tools for evaluation of air and water quality. Water Quality Assessment Metal contamination of natural and drinking water systems poses hazards to public and environmental health. Quantifying metal concentrations in water typically requires sample collection in the field followed by expensive laboratory analysis that can take days to weeks to obtain results. The first portion of this was to develop a low-cost, field-deployable method to quantify trace levels of copper in drinking water by coupling solid-phase extraction/preconcentration with a microfluidic paper-based analytical device. This method has the advantages of being hand-powered (instrument-free) and using a simple 'read by eye' quantification motif (based on color distance). Tap water samples collected across Fort Collins, CO were tested with this method and validated against ICP-MS. We demonstrate the ability to quantify the copper content of tap-water within 30% of a reference technique at levels ranging from 20 to 500,000 ppb. The application of this technology, which should be sufficient as a rapid screening tool, can lead to faster, more cost-effective detection of soluble metals in water systems. Air Quality Assessment Personal monitors for air quality are expensive and cumbersome, which hinders epidemiologic and occupational exposure assessments. The Automated Microenvironmental Aerosol Sampler (AMAS) is a low-cost, wearable device containing four filter-pump assemblies designed to measure personal exposure particulate matter air pollution. This novel device collects size-selective samples of particulate matter from within distinct personal microenvironments (i.e. at home, at work, and in transit). The AMAS uses on-board sensors (GPS, light intensity, temperature, pressure, and acceleration) coupled with an algorithm (developed and described in to this work) to determine when an individual enters a given microenvironment and then initiates sampling through one of three filter assemblies. Low-cost devices capable of in-field quantification of pollutant hazards can allow researchers to afford more monitoring and analysis equipment and increase the size of epidemiology and industrial hygiene cohorts.