Inexpensive, Personal Dust Detector Tube/Dosimeter Operating on a Gas Detector Tube Platform

This CDC developed dust detector tube is designed to provide inexpensive, short-term, time weighted average dust exposure data feedback directly to device users. This invention operates upon a conventional gas detector tube platform and can be used with any low volume pump that can electronically measure pump back pressure. The device consists of three sections: the first defines the size of the dust and removes moisture, the second uses a filter whose pressure differential corresponds with cumulative dust loading, and a final section employs a pressure transducer.

Current methods require expensive instantaneous and short-term monitors or gravimetric filters that must be carefully pre- and post-weighed to determine the average dust exposure of a user's work-shift. This novel dust dosimeter fills the need for an inexpensive short-term determination of personal dust exposure aiding in the assessment and preservation of worker respiratory health.