Program for the Assessment of Background Bioaerosols in the Industrial City ofPune, India

摘要

The Biological Systems Integration Team, Research and Technology Directorate,U.S. Army Edgewood Research, Development and Engineering Center (ERDEC), has many missions related to defense against biological aerosols. One of these is the establishment of sites inside and outside the U.S. to measure and characterize bioaerosols and to accumulate a reference database on biological backgrounds in the atmosphere. Our most completely instrumented site is at ERDEC, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. Other measurements are being carried out at Mace Head, Ireland, and we are working to establish a collaborative program to access data from many sites in Great Britain. A recent bonus was the application of the 'Rupee Fund' to our requirements, giving us a proposed bioaerosol monitoring site in Pune, India, at no cost to ERDEC. The Rupee Fund was set up by the U.S. State Department years ago when it could not recover monies intended for a failed project in India. Instead, Indian scientists were asked to propose research projects against these funds. This report describes how the Rupee Fund is expected to provide a valuable biomonitoring site for 3-5 years, without cost, and with the author serving as the principal investigator.