HN Explorer

Ask HN: What equipment measures mold, dust, tree, grass and ragweed levels?

43 points by usermac ↗ HN
I ask because I'd like to monitor these in my office and inside my home.

I use the WebMD Allergy app and I assume gets its data from a government tracking or who knows where but I've read where as the environmental impact of climate change grows, so will allergies.

16 comments

[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 49.1 ms ] thread
dalke
Mechanical collection followed by manual inspection, often through a microscope. This being HN, "a prime candidate for disruption via cloud-based deep learning methods." ;)

Mold testing is hard to research because there are no standards. As http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicati... comments, "http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicati...

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/household-saf... goes on to say that "Consumer Reports conducted an evaluation of home mold testing kits in 2006, and none of the four kits they looked at received a recommendation. The problems ranged from the kits having no expiration dates, potentially compromising the results, to being difficult to use"

One solution seems to be to lead the mold spores land on a Petri dish, incubate the dish, and inspect to see what grows. The non-professional solution is to use one's nose to check if anything smells moldy.

Pollen count is also done by manual inspection, in this case by inspection of the pollen grains. See http://www.wral.com/weather/blogpost/1389497/ . At http://www.aaaai.org/global/nab-pollen-counts/counting-stati... you can see how people get certified to be a pollen counter: "A counter will receive a pollen slide with instruction sheet. The slide and completed score sheet is returned to the NAB and graded. Pollen certification will be given if the pollen grains have been counted correctly."

It then goes on with mold counter: "A counter will receive a mold slide with instruction sheet. The slide and completed score sheet is returned to the NAB and graded. Mold certification will be given if the spores have been counted correctly."

philip1209
Are spectroscopic methods possible, or are the particles too heterogeneous?
dalke
No clue. Went to PubMed and searched for "pollen spectra". Found http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4395086/ from PLoS One, 2015 Apr 13:

> Aeroallergen monitoring networks are an important part of treatment strategies, but unfortunately traditional analysis is time consuming and expensive. We have explored the use of infrared spectroscopy of pollen and spores for an inexpensive and rapid characterization of aeroallergens.

They think it's doable.

kaybe
Maybe checking the scattering pattern would work (scattering phase function), there are already detectors for that. I don't know whether there is a database of patterns already available, but it could be possible. The corresponding field would be aerosol physics.
niels_olson
I wonder if flow cytometry would work? Have a venturi on mild suction, designed to flow a jacket layer around the perimeter, and a laser to detect forward and side scatter. That gives you size and complexity. That plus location, time, wind, and season could probably give you a very useful signal. If not in the home, certainly if the data was sent to central system, a la weather stations.
sitkack
I'd like to see a cmos imager, multispectral light source and a spherical microscope integrated into a single package. Like a cellphone camera module, but as a bonafide microscope. A way to purge the system would be nice as well (ultrasonic phased array, heated compressed air (nichrome wire, sealed can, one way valve)) ?

My use case is a water purification system that will tell you the exact pathogen count before and after purification/sterilization.

Hopefully this statement makes it non-patentable.

BostonEnginerd
You can measure gross particulate levels with indication of sizing using something like this:

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9689

This would give you some indication of what's floating around. Further analysis like what dalke mentioned would be necessary to figure out exactly what the particulate makeup is.

edit - The sharp sensor does not give an indication of sizing.

pasbesoin
This is the source of the often reported allergen counts in the Chicagoland area:

http://www.gottliebhospital.org/allergycount

I don't have time right now to dig further, myself, but I know people who know Dr. Leija and this leaves me with the impression he is a... "good egg", I guess I'll say.

Meteorologist Tom Skilling is probably the most frequent reporter of Dr. Leija's / Gottlieb's values. He has an "Ask Tom" feature; this is the type of question he might enjoy digging into and reporting.

mmastrac
In theory Birdi will be offering this as part of their smoke-and-everything-else-detector, but they haven't released anything yet so it's not something you can order today: http://getbirdi.com/

"Birdi helps you track the health of your home. Whether it's dust, VOCs, temperature & humidity or how stale the air is. Even external dangers such as pollution, pollen and particulates, Birdi is there to help you breathe a little easier."

desdiv
On their indiegogo page the estimated delivery date is October 2014, but their latest blog post says October 2015.

I'm guessing the actual date is never.

junto
As someone that has allergic rhinitis, dyshydrotic excema and allergic asthma, I would welcome a scanner that could tell me which allergens are present in my home and on my skin.