{"id":462365,"date":"2010-03-23T14:00:19","date_gmt":"2010-03-23T18:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.epa.gov\/blog\/?p=1747"},"modified":"2010-03-23T14:00:19","modified_gmt":"2010-03-23T18:00:19","slug":"onairaaar-ironing-out-trace-metal-measurements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/462365","title":{"rendered":"OnAir@AAAR: Ironing out Trace Metal Measurements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Michelle Oakes has developed a new instrument to more accurately measure a dangerous air pollutant: Iron (II).<br \/>\nOakes, an EPA STAR grantee and scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, presented the new instrument Monday at the 2010 AAAR conference on air pollution and health.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1749\" title=\"blog_ironII_michelle oakes\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.epa.gov\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/blog_ironII_michelle-oakes.jpg\" alt=\"blog_ironII_michelle oakes\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Iron (II) is commonly emitted by sources like biomass burning and coal-fired power plants and is associated with the production of harmful reactive oxygen species in the body. Oakes\u2019 device, called a Particle-to-Liquid Sampler, measures the dangerous trace metal significantly better than previous methods ever have.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople usually use a filter that works over 24 hours to measure Iron (II),\u201d Oakes explained.<br \/>\n\u201cBut what we found is that the filters underestimate Iron (II) by a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She reported that in some cases, the Particle-to-Liquid Sampler measured Iron (II) levels twice as high as those measured by the filters\u2014a very significant difference.<\/p>\n<p>Because the Sampler conducts automated measurements every 12 minutes, it does a better job than 24-hour filters at capturing changes in Iron (II) levels throughout the day.<\/p>\n<p>As wind speeds change, it is common for Iron (II) levels to fluctuate, producing what Oakes calls \u201ctransient events,\u201d or periods of time where iron levels oscillate strongly from high to low.<\/p>\n<p>The average daily Iron (II) measurements produced from the filters tend to mask these fluctuations.<br \/>\nOakes explained that her device and its ability to more accurately reflect Iron (II) variations over time could significantly benefit the public health community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom a health standpoint,\u201d Oakes said, \u201cyou need something that\u2019s reliable\u2026you want to be able to see the times of day when it\u2019s most dangerous for people to be outdoors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But there are additional advantages to the \u201ctotally new\u201d device.<br \/>\n\u201cNot only does it do a better job measuring variations, but it\u2019s also much less labor intensive than using filters which require lots of hours and work,\u201d Oakes pointed out.<\/p>\n<p>Once adapted to become more easily deployable, the sampler could potentially help States measure trace metals more easily.<br \/>\nOakes presented the work during Monday\u2019s AAAR poster session and seemed pleased to share the new technology.<br \/>\n\u201cI really enjoy working on this,\u201d Oakes said smiling, \u201cit\u2019s a way to do chemistry, be outdoors, and make an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1776\" title=\"AAAR_intro\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.epa.gov\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/AAAR_intro3.JPG\" alt=\"AAAR_intro\" width=\"500\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>About the Author: Becky Fried is a science writer with EPA\u2019s National Center for Environmental Research. Her OnAir posts are a regular \u201cScience Wednesday\u201d feature.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michelle Oakes has developed a new instrument to more accurately measure a dangerous air pollutant: Iron (II). Oakes, an EPA STAR grantee and scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, presented the new instrument Monday at the 2010 AAAR conference on air pollution and health. Iron (II) is commonly emitted by sources like biomass burning [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-462365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}