A mobile lab parked in one of Allegheny County's sootiest areas will help Carnegie Mellon University researchers further understand the health effects of soot.
The lab was in place outside South Allegheny High School from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11.
"I think it could open the eyes of people in the area," said biology student Ashley Whoolery, a senior at South Allegheny. "A lot of people think, 'This is where we live, so why change?'"
South Allegheny High School Biology II students last week toured the Mobile Air Quality Lab, maintained by CMU's Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies.
Albert Presto, the center's lab research manager, demonstrated to students how the lab instruments work and how samples are taken. Air samples were continuously taken over two weeks, and researchers will analyze the data to determine the chemical makeup of the particulates and measure their size, he said.
South Allegheny High School is the location of one of the Allegheny County Health Department Air Quality Program's permanent air monitoring stations. The school sits downwind from U.S. Steel's Clairton coke plant.
The area is known to have the highest levels of fine particulate matter of any air monitor in the county, according to the health department. The particulates are caused by combustion, such as vehicle exhaust and chemical reactions between gases.
Whoolery said she's intrigued by how this latest research could be applied to other forms of science.
"I'm very interested in science, particularly the chemicals in the brain," she said. "Some of the smaller particles can get into the blood, and I'm sure that has some effect."
The mobile lab allows researchers to take air samples into a portable smog chamber, which is a confined space into which sunlight is allowed to interact with the air just as it would normally. The chamber allows for the controlled study of the chemical reactions that take place to form pollution, said CMU chemistry professor Neil Donahue, who is director of the particle studies center.
"The thing that we often miss out on when we just go and measure concentration at one place at one time is that a lot of these ingredients take time and sunshine and chemistry to cook up pollution," Donahue said. "It's a really dynamic system, so the capability of not just going and looking at a static sample, but to grab it and cook it in a way that really does happen.
"That's something really new that's unique to this lab."
