Our project is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and involves an interdisciplinary collaboration between engineers, chemists, and psychologists at Purdue University and New York University (NYU). We will elucidate determinants of indoor dust ingestion in 6- to 24-month-old infants (age range for major postural and locomotor milestones). Specific objectives are to test: (1) whether the frequency and characteristics of indoor dust and non-dust mouthing events change with age and motor development stage for different micro-environments; (2) how home characteristics and demographic factors affect indoor dust mass loading and dust toxicant concentration; (3) how dust transfer between surfaces is influenced by dust properties, surface features, and contact dynamics; and (4) contributions of developmental, behavioral, and socio-environmental factors to dust and toxicant-resolved dust ingestion rates. In addition, the project will (5) create a shared corpus of video, dust, toxicant, and ingestion rate data to increase scientific transparency and speed progress through data reuse by the broader exposure science community.

Our transdisciplinary work will involve: (1) parent report questionnaires and detailed video coding of home observations of infant mouthing and hand-to-floor/object behaviors; (2) physical and chemical analyses of indoor dust collected through home visits and a citizen-science campaign; (3) surface-to-surface dust transfer experiments with a robotic platform; (4) dust mass balance modeling to determine distributions in and determinants of dust and toxicant-resolved dust ingestion rates; and (5) open sharing of curated research videos and processed data in the Databrary digital library and a public website with geographic and behavioral information for participating families.

The project will provide improved estimates of indoor dust ingestion rates in pre-sitting to independently walking infants and characterize inter-individual variability based on infant age, developmental stage, home environment, and parent behaviors. Dust transport experiments and modeling will provide new mechanistic insights into the factors that affect the migration of dust from the floor to mouthed objects to an infant’s mouth. The shared corpus will enable data reuse to inform future research on how dust ingestion contributes to infants’ total exposure to environmental toxicants.

U.S. EPA project overview: https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract_id/11194

Biological Characterization and Imaging, Ecology and Sustainability, Engineering the Built Environment, Environmental Characterization, Human Factors

• No Major Restriction

We are seeking students passionate about studying environmental contaminants and infant exposure to chemicals in the indoor environment. Preferred skills: experience with MATLAB, Python, or R. Coursework: environmental science and chemistry, microbiology, physics, thermodynamics, heat/mass transfer, fluid mechanics, developmental psychology.

Lyles School of Civil Engineering

Brandon Boor

Although engineers add disinfectant residual to drinking water to prevent microbial growth, as water travels many miles through distribution pipes this disinfectant is lost. Microbial growth is often unavoidable - including the growth of opportunistic pathogens that can cause disease in immunocompromised populations. The three opportunistic pathogens (OPs) recognized by the scientific community to be of major concern are Legionella pneumophila, Mycobacterium avium, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These bacteria often grow in biofilm, a microbiological layer formed along the inner surface of pipes.
This project will investigate the microbial diversity of drinking water bacteria through a variety of molecular biology methods. Opportunistic pathogens will be quantified through qPCR methods within samples from rural drinking water and controlled experiments on Purdue's campus. Additionally, students will help with more advanced molecular methods including sequencing and bioinformatics. Results from this project will provide insight into the dynamics of pathogens within drinking water.

Biological Characterization and Imaging, Cellular Biology, Engineering the Built Environment, Environmental Characterization

• No Major Restriction

While no background is required, a student with biology and/or biology lab experience and background is preferred.

Environmental and Ecological Engineering

Caitlin Proctor

Drinking water contamination is a global problem, and a challenge across North America. In the past decade, numerous chemical spills, wildfires, backflow incidents, and other activities have contaminated drinking water. As a result, many households have encountered water at their faucets that contained high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOC). Often, households are warned not to use the water due to ingestion, inhalation, and sometimes dermal exposure concerns. In some cases though, this water has contacted personal items and home water filters. Personal items have included baby pacifiers, bottles, toys, teething rings, utensils, and other items. If not cleaned thoroughly, these products may release chemicals that reach the user. Separately, home water filters may also be exposed to this highly VOC and SVOC contaminated drinking water but the degree these devices can reduce excessive contamination has gone unstudied. While home water filters are industry tested against low levels of contaminants, no such testing is available for post-disaster scenarios that involve excessive contamination levels. Despite this lacking information, officials have sometimes recommended households rinse personal items with clean tap water or purchase and use home water filter devices. The lack of prior testing inhibits households from knowing if the recommended actions are effective at protecting their health.

This study will develop a better understanding of the degree personal items and home water filters are contaminated by VOCs and SVOCs when exposed to contaminated water. Specific objectives are to: (1) Review the myriad products and types of materials that contact with water, (2) Review VOC/SVOC uptake phenomena associated with the specific plastics identified, (3) Down-select products and conduct VOC/SVOC contamination testing to estimate uptake, (4) Evaluate different practices for removing the contamination from the product. Results will help health officials and households understand whether contaminated products can be used after cleaning or should be discarded.

The student will work with a graduate student to contaminate and then evaluate different cleaning practices on various household items. The project will involve repeating recommended practices issued by public health officials and also evaluating other newer practices. The student will be taught on how to prepare solutions, collect samples, analyze data, and report results. Results are expected to be shared widely with public health officials after the project is completed.

Chemical Unit Operations, Engineering the Built Environment, Environmental Characterization

• No Major Restriction

Strong motivation to learn and apply knowledge.

Lyles School of Civil Engineering

Andrew Whelton

Water infrastructure is critical to the safety and economic health of communities. The restoration and maintenance of water supply and wastewater infrastructure are ongoing challenges for the Nation. Cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) composites technology is a popular method for repairing buried sewer pipes. CIPP technology is also now growing in popularity for repairing drinking water pipes. This is due in large part to economic considerations, as it can be 60-80% less costly than other repair alternatives. Unfortunately, the process of curing (polymerizing) the new plastic inside the damaged pipe can release hazardous materials into the air. For drinking water applications, the CIPPs can allow chemicals to leach into drinking water. Chemical air releases have resulted in illness to members of the general public and workers, and contributed to one worker fatality. The overall goal of this research is to reduce chemical volatilization from CIPP by understanding mechanisms of chemical release. This research directly addresses multiple National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine grand challenges focused on restoring infrastructure, sustainably supplying water, building healthy cities, and reducing pollution.

The student will work with a graduate student and help evaluate chemical emissions during plastic manufacture using heat and steam. Sewer and drinking water resins will be explored. The student will help conduct the laboratory experiments, sample analysis, data analysis, interpretation, and reporting. Results will be shared with health officials, municipalities, and regulators after study completion. Prior studies where undergraduates have contributed on this topic can be found on the website listed below.

Composite Materials and Alloys, Energy and Environment, Engineering the Built Environment, Environmental Characterization, Material Processing and Characterization

• No Major Restriction

Strong work ethic and commitment to learn and apply knowledge.

Lyles School of Civil Engineering

Andrew Whelton

The objective of this project is to utilize state-of-the-art proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) to evaluate emissions and exposures of volatile chemicals in buildings. My group is investigating volatile chemical emissions from consumer and personal care products, disinfectants and cleaning agents, and building and construction materials. You will assist graduate students with full-scale experiments with our PTR-MS in our new Purdue zEDGE Tiny House and process and analyze indoor air data in MATLAB.

Big Data/Machine Learning, Ecology and Sustainability, Energy and Environment, Engineering the Built Environment, Environmental Characterization

• No Major Restriction

Preferred skills: experience with MATLAB, Python, or R. Coursework: environmental science and chemistry, physics, thermodynamics, heat/mass transfer, and fluid mechanics.

Lyles School of Civil Engineering

Nusrat Jung

Air pollution, particularly aerosols, is the main environmental cause of death worldwide so understanding sources and sinks of aerosols in the environment is important. Student working on this project will use analytical techniques such as ion chromatography and isotope mass spectrometry to analyze aerosol extracted from filters. This data will be used assess sources and chemistry of aerosols in polluted environemnets.

Environmental Characterization

• Chemistry
• Environmental Health Sciences
• Computer Science

basic lab skills, self motivation, and eagerness

EAPS

Greg Michalski