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Team members Dan Tecca and Todd Process begin donning Tyvek sampling suits, booties, and gloves, which are intended to protect the integrity of the samples from cross-contamination.
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Sampling team brings equipment into the home and prepares to collect a grab sample of the air using a Summa canister.
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The sampler carefully opens the valve to the evacuated Summa canister while watching the vacuum gauge. The team then prepares to collect a house dust sample using a Nilfisk vacuum.
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A 1 square meter template is used to measure the area in which the dust sample is collected. Multiple areas are vacuumed in portions of the home most frequently used by the resident children. The Summa canister is a stainless steel vessel which, prior to use, has been evacuated under laboratory-clean conditions. After the sample is collected, it will be returned to the lab and the sample extracted and analyzed utilizing a gas chromatograph/mass spectography analytical instrument.
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Sampling team collects a play yard soil sample.
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Several jars of soil are collected, which will be sent to laboratories across the country. Soils will be analyzed for metals, and semi-volatile organic compounds, PCBs, several classes of pesticides, and radionuclides.
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NDEP's Fallon field office is set up to package the samples for shipment to the laboratories. Sampling supplies are stocked there so that each sampling team has the necessary equipment before heading out to perform the day's sampling.
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Jennifer McMartin goes over the contents of a field sampling kit with Myrna Candreia, CDC contractor. Lori Campbell performs equipment "decon" - carefull cleaning of the sampling equipment to prevent sample cross-contamination.
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From left - Jim Najima, Freeman Johnson, Allen Biaggi, and Dr. Randall Todd - Nevada State Epidemiologist, Nevada State Health Division
Freeman Johnson and Allen Biaggi with Libby Levy - Regional Representative, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
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Sig Jaunarajs places a Radon detection canister in a home. Radon, a naturally occuring daughter product which results from Uranium decay, is present in a gaseous phase in most homes.
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Annalyn Settlemeyer, Dean Borges, and Kurt Payne practice soil sampling while following a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). SOPs were developed for all phases of the sampling effort.
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Teams utilized several area homes to practice the sampling methods.
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Annalyn and Kurt collect a dust wipe sample. The television screen, a convenient dust collector due to electrostatic attraction, is wiped with a gauze strip, which will be analyzed for radionuclides.
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ALLEN BIAGGI
Churchill County, Nevada -- Leukemia Investigation
