Project CZ .1.02/5.1.00/10.06301 „Monitoring nanoparticles in an environment”
The project is focused on sampling, measuring and evaluation of nano- and submicroparticles occurrence in an environment, their distribution and morphology. An integral part of this project is to study the distribution of metals in the airborne dust in the range from 1nm to 30µm and observation of samples from various sources (indoor, outdoor, workplaces) by scanning electron microscopy and their elementary analysis by EDS or WDS equipment. The problem associated with the presence of nanoparticles in ambient air is currently being intensively studied for many of the top research and scientific centers in Europe and all over the world. The idea of this project is to reveal a possible link between the incidence of some lifestyle diseases and the presence of a certain type of nanoparticles present in the environment. There are many studies that show that at the beginning of some very serious nervous and cardiovascular disease may be contact (inhalation) with so contaminated atmosphere. It should be noted that worldwide research, despite the enormous scientific advances, has not yet been able to determine at least indicative inclusion criteria of nanoparticles according to their toxicity, respectively, there are still discussions about how to express exposure limits. The information on the amount of individual fractions of nanoparticles expressed in mass units (µg, ng) lacks rationality. Professional public is gradually inclined to express concentrations according to their number, the active surface or the chemical reactivity. One of the other goals is to gain knowledge about the occurrence of nanoparticles and their quantity/quality in the outdoor environment of Ostrava industrial agglomeration, whose population has a significantly higher frequency of certain diseases. This is a completely new and yet unobserved long approach study in this field of interest. Heavy metals, whose majority fraction is bound to nanoparticles pose a serious risk of health damage by the long-term impacts.
Contact
Ing. Karel Lach, CSc.
+420 604 203 768
+420 596 200 438
karel.lach@zuova.cz