This SBIR topic aligns with the DHA Environmental Exposures Toxic Injury Prevention Roadmap, specifically focusing on enhanced tools and assessment methodology for acute and chronic exposure to military-relevant chemicals, materials, and hazards. The DoW requires the capability to comprehensively characterize particulate composition in situ in the field to replace current methods which require samples to be collected and sent to a reach back laboratory. Particulate exposure is correlated with exacerbating asthma, cardiopulmonary disease and systemic effects (1-2). Chemical composition is important to correlate exposure with health impact (1-2). Particulates of interest for monitoring in the DoW are broad and include those generated from both environmental and occupational sources. The primary chemical classes of interest include biological, carbonaceous (i.e. soot) and metals. Particulates are generated at relatively high concentrations from maintenance processes and high intensity processes such as weapons firing, engine emissions and fires. Particulates generated from maintenance processes can be present in a broad size range depending on the nature of the process, while the peak size of particulates generated during high intensity processes are often less than 0.1 microns (100 nanometers) (3). In outdoor environments, particulates pick up additional contaminants, such as biological materials (4). There are methods available to collect particulates and submit for laboratory analysis, but methods to characterize particulate composition on-site in field environments are limited in the ability to detect all class of interest (carbonaceous, metals, biologicals) and all size fractions (ultrafine, fine, coarse). Developing a comprehensive detection capability for ultrafine particulates is a critical investment in the long-term readiness and well-being of the force. Standard monitoring equipment often fails to detect submicron particles, which pose a medical threat due to their ability to penetrate the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Service members operating in environments such as burn pits, flightlines/flight decks, or industrial maintenance facilities may be exposed to hazardous concentrations without warning, leading to systemic inflammation, cardiovascular stress, and respiratory toxicity. Proactive, quantitative surveillance provides data to allow commanders to make informed decisions to protect the force, enables preventative medicine personnel to mitigate hazards, and creates a permanent exposure data health record essential for future service member and veteran health care. The novel materiel solution desired is a field portable capability to characterize the chemical composition of ultrafine, fine and coarse particulate ranging from 0.01 microns (10 nanometers) to 10 microns. The priority is for the device to differentiate between carbonaceous, metal, water vapor and biological particulate. However, additional speciation of elemental versus organic carbon, specific metals, minerals and biologicals is also desired. The sensitivity of the device must be low enough to be compatible with field relevant concentrations (size-dependent, available in literature referenced). The response from sample collection to reporting must be real-time or near real-time (< 10 minutes). The device must integrate a simple user-interface and calibration capability, require minimal input from the user and produce data output which can be easily interpreted. The device must also be ruggedized to meet requirements in MIL-STD-810H (5). Reliance on consumable materials such as working fluids should be minimized. Both onboard and wireless data transmission capability must be integrated into the device. Device cost threshold should target <$50K per unit to ensure practicable transition.
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