Air Monitors Sponsors Air quality PhD

The instrumentation company Air Monitors (UK) has announced that it is sponsoring a new PhD project at King's College London to study ambient levels of Black Carbon. Applications for this important post must be posted online to the KCL Health School by Friday 2nd December.

Air Monitors' MD Jim Mills said: "This is a fantastic opportunity to become involved in one of today's most important air quality issues. Just last week an article in the Sunday Times warned about the role of fine particulates in the thousands of premature deaths that are being attributed to fine particulates and this week the Environmental Audit Committee has claimed that the government's failure to meet EU standards on air pollution is putting the health of UK residents at risk."

Background

Better understanding of black carbon concentrations, emission sources and trends are needed for improved policies to control ambient particle concentrations to meet EU Limit Values and to minimise the health effects of air pollution. Improved measurements of black carbon are needed to track changes in emissions of particles from tail pipe combustion and also to determine any air quality impacts of increased burning of wood for space heating. The climate change implications of black carbon emissions provide a further imperative for the better understanding of black carbon emissions.

PhD Project

Standard methods for the measurement of carbon in airborne particles are fraught with challenges including sampling and analytical difficulties; however, the measurement of black carbon by aethalometer provides a real-time alternative. The successful PhD applicant will develop protocols and conduct investigations using three aethalometer variants; a field sampler, personal exposure measurement device and a laboratory based tool. The PhD student will also utilise measurements from the UK aethalometer network.

As a CASE partner Air Monitors Ltd will provide technical advice, equipment and commercial training and linkages to the manufacturer’s research and development team at Magee Scientific (USA) and Aerosol (Slovenia).

A link to the application forms is available at www.airmonitors.co.uk