Small, Smart, Fast, and Cheap: Microchip-Based Sensors to Estimate Air Pollution Exposures in Rural Households

Pillarisetti, Ajay; Allen, Tracy; Ruiz-Mercado, Ilse; Edwards, Rufus; Chowdhury, Zohir; Garland, Charity; Hill, L. Drew; Johnson, Michael; Litton, Charles D.; Lam, Nicholas L.; Pennise, David; Smith, Kirk R.

doi:10.3390/s17081879

Open AccessArticle

Small, Smart, Fast, and Cheap: Microchip-Based Sensors to Estimate Air Pollution Exposures in Rural Households

by

Ajay Pillarisetti

^1,*,

Tracy Allen

²,

Ilse Ruiz-Mercado

³,

Rufus Edwards

⁴,

Zohir Chowdhury

⁵,

Charity Garland

⁶,

L. Drew Hill

¹,

Michael Johnson

⁶,

Charles D. Litton

⁷,

Nicholas L. Lam

⁸,

David Pennise

⁶ and

Kirk R. Smith

^1,*

¹

Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

²

Electronically Monitored Ecosystems (EME), LLC, Berkeley, CA 94710, USA

³

CONACYT—Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia 58190, Michoacán, México

⁴

Department of Epidemiology, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA

⁵

Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA

⁶

Berkeley Air Monitoring Group, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA

⁷

Airviz, Inc., CREATE LAB, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA

⁸

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sensors 2017, 17(8), 1879; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17081879

Submission received: 13 July 2017 / Revised: 5 August 2017 / Accepted: 11 August 2017 / Published: 16 August 2017

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Air Pollution Sensors: A New Class of Tools to Measure Air Quality)

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Abstract

Over the last 20 years, the Kirk R. Smith research group at the University of California Berkeley—in collaboration with Electronically Monitored Ecosystems, Berkeley Air Monitoring Group, and other academic institutions—has developed a suite of relatively inexpensive, rugged, battery-operated, microchip-based devices to quantify parameters related to household air pollution. These devices include two generations of particle monitors; data-logging temperature sensors to assess time of use of household energy devices; a time-activity monitoring system using ultrasound; and a CO₂-based tracer-decay system to assess ventilation rates. Development of each system involved numerous iterations of custom hardware, software, and data processing and visualization routines along with both lab and field validation. The devices have been used in hundreds of studies globally and have greatly enhanced our understanding of heterogeneous household air pollution (HAP) concentrations and exposures and factors influencing them.

Keywords: PM_2.5 monitor; stove use monitor; time-activity monitor; air exchange rate monitor; field validation; intrahousehold variation; household air pollution

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MDPI and ACS Style

Pillarisetti, A.; Allen, T.; Ruiz-Mercado, I.; Edwards, R.; Chowdhury, Z.; Garland, C.; Hill, L.D.; Johnson, M.; Litton, C.D.; Lam, N.L.; et al. Small, Smart, Fast, and Cheap: Microchip-Based Sensors to Estimate Air Pollution Exposures in Rural Households. Sensors 2017, 17, 1879. https://doi.org/10.3390/s17081879

AMA Style

Pillarisetti A, Allen T, Ruiz-Mercado I, Edwards R, Chowdhury Z, Garland C, Hill LD, Johnson M, Litton CD, Lam NL, et al. Small, Smart, Fast, and Cheap: Microchip-Based Sensors to Estimate Air Pollution Exposures in Rural Households. Sensors. 2017; 17(8):1879. https://doi.org/10.3390/s17081879

Chicago/Turabian Style

Pillarisetti, Ajay, Tracy Allen, Ilse Ruiz-Mercado, Rufus Edwards, Zohir Chowdhury, Charity Garland, L. Drew Hill, Michael Johnson, Charles D. Litton, Nicholas L. Lam, and et al. 2017. "Small, Smart, Fast, and Cheap: Microchip-Based Sensors to Estimate Air Pollution Exposures in Rural Households" Sensors 17, no. 8: 1879. https://doi.org/10.3390/s17081879

APA Style

Pillarisetti, A., Allen, T., Ruiz-Mercado, I., Edwards, R., Chowdhury, Z., Garland, C., Hill, L. D., Johnson, M., Litton, C. D., Lam, N. L., Pennise, D., & Smith, K. R. (2017). Small, Smart, Fast, and Cheap: Microchip-Based Sensors to Estimate Air Pollution Exposures in Rural Households. Sensors, 17(8), 1879. https://doi.org/10.3390/s17081879

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Small, Smart, Fast, and Cheap: Microchip-Based Sensors to Estimate Air Pollution Exposures in Rural Households

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