• When doctors and scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center, needed information on aerosols generated by surgical tools during orthopaedic surgery, they used our PC-2H 10-stage quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) real-time cascade impactor to find out. The instrument provided them particle size distribution and mass concentration data rapidly in real-time. They found that the surgical tools did generate blood-containing aerosols small enough to be inhaled by operating room personnel.
  
  
• For many years the U.S. Navy has used our PC-2 10-stage QCM real-time cascade impactors to monitor the air inside nuclear submarines. Naval Research Laboratory engineers were able to use the instrument to gather long-term data on the nature of airborne particulates in the closed environment and on the efficiency of ship-borne air cleaners for the removal of oil vapor particles. The data enabled the Navy to improve the performance of new air cleaners.
  
  
• Whenever there is a major volcanic eruption, chances are that a California Measurements multistage QCM real-time cascade impactor is at work on board a NASA research aircraft to track the particle plume in the upper atmospheres. Our instruments have seen service on many types of research aircraft, including NASA's U-2 and ER-2, over the volcanoes at Mt. St. Helens in Washington, and Mt. Erebus in the Antarctic.
  
  
• Environmental health scientists in Hawaii will soon be able to gain a better understanding of the nature of Volcanic Smog (VOG) on the Big Island of Hawaii caused by the continuous eruption of the Kilauea Volcano. VOG has produced a natural air pollution with discernible visual impact and anecdotal evidence of health effects. The state of Hawaii is using three of our PC-2 instruments to collect particle samples for speciation and gather size distribution and concentration data continuously, in real-time, at several locations.
  
  
• The DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory Micro-Atmospheric Measurement System utilizes one of our multistage QCM real-time cascade impactors to monitor airborne particle size distribution and mass concentrations. It weighs only 13 pounds and can be deployed on a remotely piloted vehicle (RPV), or another mobile platform, to measure particle emission plumes from diffuse sources, such as, hazardous-waste sites or land undergoing environmental remediation.
  
  
• When the Taiwan Power Company needed to conduct dose assessments of radioactive aerosols inhaled by workers at its nuclear power plant, our PC-2 real-time air particle analyzer and our MPS-4G1 Microanalysis Air particle Sampler were used to get the data needed. The PC-2 provided size distribution and mass concentration data in real-time at various locations and the MPS-4G1 collected samples directly on SEM stubs for speciation analyses in a scanning electron microscope.
  
  
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