St. Helens Air Quality

We want to assess the air quality for residents in St. Helens, Oregon in relation to their address, over-time. We will be using air and personal passive samplers in this study.

Researchers at Oregon State University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are working together on this study.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a U.S. federal agency, has provided funding for this study.  There is no cost to participants.

We are looking for study participants to wear silicone wristbands for 7-day periods to measure personal chemical exposures. We would like to sample 4 times in the upcoming sampling period, and another 4 times in a future sampling period. Each sampling period is anticipated to take place over 8 months. Participants will also be asked to fill out a 10-minute questionnaire about their home and habits to help us learn about individual chemical sources. We are looking for some of the participants to host a passive air sampler in their yard during each sampling period.

We will use passive samplers. They are passive meaning that they absorb chemicals in the air and require no motor or maintenance for them to operate. 

We use silicone wristbands as passive samplers to measure an individual’s exposure to chemicals. More information about the silicone wristbands and FAQs at the following website: http://fses.oregonstate.edu/wristbands

For yard samples, the sampling material used to collect the chemicals in the air is placed inside a metal box to protect it from weather conditions and animals. The samplers pose no danger to humans, livestock or crops. The sampling box is in the shape of a T, weighs 3 pounds and is 29 inches long by 12 inches wide at the T.

The pictures below show sampling boxes and silicone wristbands used by our study team in Oregon.

These samplers can collect thousands of different chemicals, including volatile organic compounds which can impact human health. This study will focus on measuring PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) which are common pollutants.

Yes. We will provide you all of your sampling data if you would like to receive it.  We will also share summary information about all sampling results.  The air sampling results from this study may be published, but your name or address would not be included in the publication.  Your results will remain anonymous.