Congratulations to Associate Professor Cielito D. (Tammy) King, in the Chemical Sciences Department, Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on receiving an Innov-X Research Grant Award. Ms. King's research project, Use of Portable XRF to Compare Arsenic Levels in In-service Pressure-treated Playground Structures and the Soil Underneath, is being carried out at a playground in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. According to Ms. King, "The risk of exposure to arsenic of these children can be established by determining (1) if arsenic is leaching from the wooden structures into the surrounding soil and (2) if there is potential transfer to children by hand contact with existing structures and the soil or pebble cover underneath. … [T]he risk of arsenic exposure through direct contact with wooden structures (such as by simply playing on it) has not been determined, yet is a more realistic exposure route since more children play on wooden structures than on dirt in the study site [playground]."
Portable XRF provides fast and simple in-situ elemental analysis of Mg through U, from PPM to high percentage levels. In a matter of seconds, it allows simultaneous measurements of up to 25 elements. The Innov-X Academic Relations Program encourages and supports research into applications where insitu XRF measurements expand or enhance a knowledge base. It puts the power of portable XRF in researchers' hands allowing them to take it to the field, where it really counts. Innov-X Academic Research Grants include the loan of an analyzer, technical training and/or consultation, and sponsorship at a technical conference to present the research findings.
