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Breath Analysis Science at PittCon 2012, Orlando, Florida
Citation:
Pleil, J., M. Stiegel, T. Kormos, AND J. SOBUS. Breath Analysis Science at PittCon 2012, Orlando, Florida. Journal of Breath Research. Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol, Uk, 6(3):1-6, (2012).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory′s (NERL′s) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA′s mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD′s research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA′s strategic plan. More specifically, our division conducts research to characterize the movement of pollutants from the source to contact with humans. Our multidisciplinary research program produces Methods, Measurements, and Models to identify relationships between and characterize processes that link source emissions, environmental concentrations, human exposures, and target-tissue dose. The impact of these tools is improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.
Description:
Breath analysis science was featured in three organized sessions at this year’s Pittsburgh Conference and Exposition, or ‘PittCon 2012’ (http://www.pittcon.org/). As described in previous meeting reports, PittCon is one of the largest international conferences for analytical chemistry and instrumentation, typically attracting about 20 000 attendees and 1000 commercial exhibitors (Pleil 2010, 2011). This year the conference was held in Orlando, Florida, USA at the Orange County Conference Center. In the past few years, breath analysis science has taken on an ever-increasing role at PittCon through the success of the International Association of Breath Research (IABR) and the Journal of Breath Research (JBR). We have also had a presence at a recent conference of the Submarine Air Monitoring and Air Purification (SAMAP) organization in Taranto, Italy, wherein breath analysis and other biomarker measurements are taking on an increasingly important role in assessing exposures and health in artificial atmospheres including submarines, aircraft and spacecraft (Pleil and Hansel 2012). In 2012, members of IABR organized or participated in three distinct PittCon events: a contributed technical session, a conferee networking session, and an invited symposium series. The common thread among these three different conferencing settings was the concept of ‘non-invasive’ environmental, medical, and diagnostic biomarker assessment. Of particular interest was how breath is being considered more and more mainstream as a biological medium, and is often discussed favorably as complementary or alternative to blood and urine measurements.