The objective of Texas Allergy, Indoor Environment, and Energy Institute: to pinpoint indoor air pollutants and develop technology to minimize them.
A nearby machine purrs as
Torey Nalbone, associate civil engineering professor, explains its purpose in
great detail.
According to a story in
the Tyler Morning Telegraph ,
in a lab on the University of Texas at Tyler
campus, Nalbone and his machine analyze the unseen, potentially nasty
nanoparticles that can emerge from everyday household and business items and
perhaps cause an array of health problems, including cancer.
The
work is for the Texas Allergy, Indoor Environment, and Energy Institute, or
TxAIRE, a collaborative grant project with UT partners in Dallas, Austin, Tyler’s
health science center and industrial partners.
The objective: to pinpoint
indoor air pollutants and develop technology to minimize them.
For
commercial purposes, it could mean businesses scrambling to improve air quality
and ventilation to avoid legal actions from employees claiming that what they
breathed on the job made them sick. In the biggest of all pictures, the cleaner
air could reduce worker absences — and employer health costs.
Morning Telegraph story.
