Michigan State University (MSU) is putting its new, $400,000, 450 square foot mobile air research laboratory on the road with the intention of better understanding the damaging effects of air pollution.
The researchers are also trying to understand why certain airborne particles that are emitted from plants and vehicles, induce disease and illness.
The advantage of the mobile lab is that it goes directly to the source, pulling 5,000 liters of air per minute through a smokestack-like structure, allowing researchers to immediately extract and study very fine particles.
The first MSU Mobile Air Research Laboratory, AirCARE 1, spends about half of the year in metro Detroit and half of the year in Los Angeles.
AirCARE 2 is headed to southeastern Michigan to study the cardiovascular health effects of transported air pollution originating from distant emission sites in Michigan or adjacent states.
“With the new mobile lab, we’re able to do different studies simultaneously in different areas of the country,” says Jack Harkema, a university distinguished professor of pathobiology and diagnostic investigation in the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Source: Jack Harkema, MSU
Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.
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