Remote Sensing Study
Pottery Particulates
This purpose of this project was to see if the particulate levels in the Ceramics Studio at Berry College are within EPA guidelines. The study was done by designing a Wi-Fi enabled sensor device that uploaded data to an online database server.
Hardware and PCB Design
The device is composed of a PMS 5003 air particulate sensor and an esp32 dev board (programmed in Arduino). A custom PCB was designed in EasyEDA.
Website Design
A website was developed through HTML, Bootstrap, PHPMyAdmin, and charts.js in order to address findings and visualize the data collected.
The data answered these three questions:
1) Are the particulates measured in the studio at a healthy level?
2) How is the particulate concentration affected by activities in the studio?
3) Should N95 masks be required?
Enclosure/Kiosk Design
An enclosure for the device was designed in Fusion 360 and 3D printed.
A Kiosk was made to visualize the data in a user friendly way.
Conclusions
Based on this study, the air quality in the Ceramics Studio is healthy according to EPA guidelines. The EPA states that a 24 hour average PM 2.5 particulate concentration above 12.0 µg/m3 is considered ‘Moderate’ risk, and sensitive groups should avoid prolonged exposure to the air. Concentration above 35.5 µg/m3 is considered ‘Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups’ and there is an increased risk of respiratory symptoms for sensitive individuals. Concentrations above 55.5 µg/m3 are considered 'Unhealthy', and the general public is at risk to respiratory irritation
According to the data collected, the average particulate concentration for PM 2.5 is 11.5 µg/m3 in the Ceramics Studio. This number is below the ‘Moderate’ guideline and well below the ‘Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups’ and 'Unhealthy' guideline. It is also important to note that these guidelines are for a 24-hour average concentration, and the particulate concentration in the Studio only went above the 12.0, 35.5, and 55.5 µg/m3 guidelines 31.9%, 0.6%, and 0.2% of the time, respectively.
