Air Sampling Underway

Wednesday, May 26, 2010 01:18 PM

Formaldehyde detection instrument to be used by Millar Addition Coalition

Prince George, B.C.- The first set of base line air samples in the Millar Addition are being collected, both by the Ministry of the Environment and by the Millar Addition Coalition.

While the instruments being used are different, both sets of samples will be looking for formaldehyde.

The Ministry of the Environment instruments are sensitive and the Ministry has the funding to collect and analyze 54 samples. Their analysis will look for a total of 15 chemical compounds within the grouping of aldehydes and keytones.

There is a secondary sampling machine in operation in Prince George. It arrived about a month ago and was installed at Plaza 400 downtown. That machine is testing for formaldehyde only. Although it has been collecting data for several weeks, the local Ministry of the Environment has not yet received any of the findings “We will continue asking for the data until we get it” says Dean Cherkas, the Regional Manager for the Ministry of the Environment.

( at right, an air technician stats the MoE's air sampling machine)

Cherkas says the samples taken today at fort George Park and at Patricia Boulevard, will be the baseline for comparison with samples taken during air quality events. He says today’s sample sites are the same as the same sites in which formaldehyde was detected during 2008 sampling. While the results of that testing were not made public for several months after the tests were completed, Cherkas says the results of the new round of testing will be made public as soon as results are available “Obviously, transparency is key here” says Cherkas.

The next round of sampling will be conducted when there is an air quality incident, or whenever there is a complaint about bad air quality. “I have a technician who will be able to go out at any time, even 3 or 4 in the morning, if that is when the complaint is lodged” says Cherkas.

The MoE has funding to cover 54 samplings.

In addition to the MoE sampling, the Millar Addition Coalition has it’s own hand held device which tests for formaldehyde only. That device will be used at the same time the MoE is doing its own sampling says Carol Fairhurst of M.A.C. “our device can take a reading in a half hour, and will show if there is any formaldehyde and it’s concentration in parts per million. The Ministry’s sampling is a lot more sensitive than that.” The beauty of the hand held device is that while it takes the machine 30 minutes to collect a sample, the results of the test are available immediately. The Ministry’s testing equipment requires the samples to be packaged, frozen and sent to UBC for analysis. Results may not be ready for 2 or three weeks.