The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) recently composed an Environmental Assessment draft regarding a New York City aerosol particle behavior study.
“This study is part of the Department’s ongoing commitment to public safety against the intentional or accidental release of substances that are harmful to human health,” DHS S&T Program Manager Donald Bansleben said. “We’ll be studying particulate transport between aboveground and underground environments, impacts associated with human movement, and sampling how particles may travel into neighboring boroughs and other locations that include transportation hubs and critical infrastructure. We’ll also be evaluating chemical and biological sensor technologies in the subway environment.”
The draft Environmental Assessment on the use of these materials has been posted on the DHS website.
The scope of work will include examining the use of safe tracer particles as a means of gathering data on aerosolized particle behavior in an urban environment – in the air and deposited on environmental surfaces. The examinations are slated to occur between September 2021 and May 2022 and will be conducted at varied street-level and transit locations in Manhattan.
Researchers are expected to use non-toxic, inert perfluorocarbon gas tracers in implementation. The process has been used in dispersion experiments dating back to the 1960s.