Year of Award
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
Master of Science (MS)
Degree Name
Chemistry (Analytical/Environmental Option)
Department or School/College
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Committee Chair
Chris Palmer
Committee Co-chair
n/a
Commitee Members
Erin Semmens, Lu Hu
Keywords
exposure, wood smoke, fire, carcinogen, volatile organic compounds, PAHs
Publisher
University of Montana
Subject Categories
Analytical Chemistry | Environmental Chemistry
Abstract
Human exposure to biomass smoke is a health concern worldwide. Although many studies have measured particulate matter in wood smoke as a health concern, exposure to mutagenic and carcinogenic volatile and semivolatile compounds remains understudied. This research introduces a novel method of quantitative measurement of exposure to these compounds using silicone wristbands. The study developed a method to extract analytes of interest from the wristbands and quantify a few volatile organic compounds and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with known ill health effects, and then performed linear regressions between extracted levels and exposure to those analytes using controlled exposure studies. Results indicate good and statistically significant correlations between recovered analytes from the wristbands and average exposure over time, making these wristbands a potentially useful tool for quantitatively testing exposure to wood smoke.
Recommended Citation
American Chemical Society
© Copyright 2019 Hannah J. Wright