Innovative Devices as Protection from Environmental Dust (2010-2012)

Dispo intends to identify a technological, advanced solution for the individual protection through filter devices for subjects exposed to fine (<1u- FP) and ultrafine particles (<100nm-UFP) in urban and working environment. Recently these technologies have highly developed, but the individual protection from sub-micrometer particulate emissions is still today a field that needs specific researches and efficiency tests for the real use of the final product. Currently monitoring technologies of PM10 and individual protection systems to prevent the effect on health are well-established and also the PM2.5 monitoring and protection systems from these particulate are reinforcing.
The present technological challenge is about the fine and ultrafine particles field: new measuring and individual protection systems must be established to face up to these particles.
The research activities involved in this project suggest the development of new technologies for the measuring of FPs and UFPs, which can be used at industrial level, for the modification/realisation of materials suitable to filtration of these particles and for the evaluation of the biological effect.
The purpose of the planning scheme is the development of a new filter tissue for FPs and UFPs and its application to individual protection devices for the production and commercialisation on a large scale.

The project develops activities related to:
• production/characterization of fine particulate;
• new technologies to modify nanostructured materials;
• check of filtration efficiency and biological compatibility of the product.

The Operative Units (UO) involved in the project are:
UO.1 – CON.TEC Engineering (PMI)
UO.2 – STA (PMI)
UO.3 – Unimib-1 (Università Milano Bicocca; Centro di Ricerca POLARIS)
UO.4 – BLS (PMI)
UO.5 – Unimib-2 (Università Milano Bicocca; Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali)

The main targets of this project are:
A. individuation/production of standard FPs and UFPs and realisation of innovative monitoring instruments apt to the count and measuring of these particles (CONTEC;STA);
B. development of innovative protective materials/tissues (Device of Individual Protection, DPI, D.L.81/2008) able to filter and protect from FPs e UFPs (BLS, UNIMIB-2);
C. evaluation of the device efficiency from the biological effect point of view, (UNIMIB-1), breathability (UNIMIB-1) and commercial use (BLS).