Superfund Research Program

October 2023

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Texas A&M University SRP Center researchers deployed a mobile air monitoring van in East Palestine, Ohio, following a train derailment. The van contained real-time, highly sensitive instrumentation to perform air quality analysis, and was driven around locations up- and down-wind of the train derailment for two days. Nontargeted analysis quantifies all chemicals in a sample and uses large chemical databases to identify unknown components. This technique can be used to complement stationary screening methods.

According to the authors, non-targeted mobile monitoring offers a more complete picture of how disasters affect air quality and can help characterize exposure to air pollution following disasters to protect public health.

To learn more, see the NIEHS Extramural Paper of the Month.