Progress

Summary of the project outcomes as of June 2017

  • A Microsoft EXCEL based application to evaluate the reliability of data on the concentration of ENMs in indoor and outdoor areas according with the information requirements laid down on REACH.
  • A complete inventory of data on the levels of particles in the nanometer range measured during the production and downstream use of ENMs and nano-enabled products.
  • An on-line library of exposure scenarios across the life cycle of 15 ENMs.
  • Delivery of the first NanoMONITOR measurement station prototype.
  • Release of the beta version on the NanoMONITOR Web Portal.

The NanoMONITOR Web-Based Library is an on-line inventory of exposure scenarios and exposure monitoring data to ease the access and promote the use of the data generated within the project under the risk assessment process established by REACH.

The NanoMONITOR monitoring station prototype is a compact size air monitoring station designed to provide real-time information of the concentration of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) in outdoor and indoor areas. It has been designed by the members of the project NanoMONITOR, in particular ITENE and CEAM. The station prototype has been designed considering two integrated modules. Nanomonitor Station prototype

Module 1, or “particle counting unit” able to detect and measure the levels of nanosized (1 to 100 nm in diameter) and ultra-fine airborne particles (10 to 300 nm in diameter) in indoor workplaces and outdoor environments, providing data on the number concentration (number/ cm3), mass concentration (mg/ cm3), lung deposited surface area (µm2/ cm3), and average particle diameter (nm).

Module 2, or “pump-based sampling system” able to collect nanosized and ultra-fine airborne particles from an aerosol stream on a collection plate or filter.

A tailored designed software to control the instrument settings, collect and store data has been designed.

The software offers a dynamic control of the operation of the station, considering:

  • Tailored designed lab view Programming.
  • Remote and local access to configure the settings of the monitoring station. Provide user configuration and scheduling of main sampling and operation conditions.
  • Remote and local access to information on the levels on nanosized and ultra-fine airborne particles measured by the station.
  • Real-time display of measurements.
  • Ability to identify relevant events during operation. (i.e. high concentration or external situations affecting the measure).

The NanoMONITOR WebPortal is a distributed client-server system. The software application supports the import of “historical” monitoring data; the capture of monitoring data from sensors in real-time; real-time QA/QC for data imports, data storage including automatic incremental backup strategies, data  (basic descriptive statistics), graphical display, a range of analytical tools for exposure- and risk analysis,  and the prediction (simulation) of indoor- and ambient concentration (counts and mass based) values, together with data conversion- and export tools, and the management of associated META data (partly structured, partly as free (multi-media data for full text search) for the interpretation of all monitoring data holdings). The web portal is a full GUI “Graphical User Interface” using modern responsive HTML5 dynamic pages generation technology and it is intended to be used primarily by non IT personnel e.g. environment scientists.