PRINCE GEORGE- The University of Northern British Columbia unveiled a one of kind project built by Madeline Clarke that will help different industries across the country.

“This is the Workplace Atmosphere Sampler,” said Clarke. “What it does is it holds these individual air pumps that filter. They put air through filter paper and catch the dust, particles, and whatever we’re looking for in the air.”

The device will start by assessing the air of a welding facility, and with multiple tubes catching particles, the deceive hopes to expand into bigger spaces.

“If you want to take more than one sample, you can’t attach like five pieces to a person. That would just be annoying,” said Clarke. “We can take more samples and get more accurate sampling done in all kinds of environments.”

Funded partly by WorkSafe BC, Canada Summer Jobs and PacifiCan’s recently established Environmental Solutions Innovation Hub, the school hopes this is the first of many worldwide projects coming out of UNBC.

“WorkSafe BC actually approached us with a couple of projects and said that we don’t have anybody in the region in Canada that can do industrial hygiene sampling and analysis,” said Ann Duong, NALS Quality Assurance Officer. “It’s incredible what’s happening here at UNBC, a small university, but great things can happen at small places.”

Clarke researched, designed and created the Workplace Atmosphere Sampler in less than four months while working at Northern Analytical Laboratory Services at UNBC.

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