Identifying an indoor air exposure limit for formaldehyde considering both irritation and cancer hazards

Formaldehyde is a well-studied chemical and effects from inhalation exposures have been extensively characterized in numerous controlled studies with human volunteers, including asthmatics and other sensitive individuals, which provide a rich database on exposure concentrations that can reliably produce the symptoms of sensory irritation. Although individuals can differ in their sensitivity to odor and eye irritation, the majority of authoritative reviews of the formaldehyde literature have concluded that an air concentration of 0.3 ppm will provide protection from eye irritation for virtually everyone. A weight of evidence-based formaldehyde exposure limit of 0.1 ppm (100 ppb) is recommended as an indoor air level for all individuals for odor detection and sensory irritation. It has recently been suggested by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the National Toxicology Program (NTP), and the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) that formaldehyde is causally associated with nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) and leukemia. This has led US EPA to conclude that irritation is not the most sensitive toxic endpoint and that carcinogenicity should dictate how to establish exposure limits for formaldehyde. In this review, a number of lines of reasoning and substantial scientific evidence are described and discussed, which leads to a conclusion that neither point of contact nor systemic effects of any type, including NPC or leukemia, are causally associated with exposure to formaldehyde. This conclusion supports the view that the equivocal epidemiology studies that suggest otherwise are almost certainly flawed by identified or yet to be unidentified confounding variables. Thus, this assessment concludes that a formaldehyde indoor air limit of 0.1 ppm should protect even particularly susceptible individuals from both irritation effects and any potential cancer hazard

A plasma shutter to generate a synchronized subnanosecond pulse for optical probing of laser-produced plasmas

A simple and reliable technique to temporally shorten a multinanosecond Nd:glass laser pulse to less than nanosecond duration at the second harmonic wavelength is described in this article. Using this technique a short probe pulse synchronized with the main laser was generated for optical probing of laser-produced plasmas. Experiments reported were conducted with a Nd:glass laser of wavelength 1.06 μm and of 20 ns duration to yield a temporally shortened pulse of duration less than a nanosecond at a wavelength of 0.53 μm. This technique would be particularly useful and give better results for shorter wavelength lasers (UV and VUV) for which the conventional techniques of pulse slicing are sophisticated as well as add to the expense and complexity of the laser system

Measurement of laser driven shock wave transit time through thin aluminium targets by optical shadowgraphy

Laser driven shock wave transit time in thin aluminium targets was experimentally estimated by determining the shock emergence time at the rear of thin aluminium foils of varying thickness from 5 to 35 μ m. A 20 J, 5 ns Nd:glass laser was focused to produce laser intensity of 1012 to 5 × 1013 W/cm2 on the targets which were placed in vacuum. Target foil movement was measured to an accuracy of 10 μm using optical shadowgraphy technique. This technique was used to accurately measure the shock transit time by recording the optical shadowgrams at various instants of time and thus identify the instant at which the foil is just set into motion. Shock transit time measured in foils of different thickness can give the value of shock velocity at a given laser intensity. Target motion recorded by shadowgraphy can also give the target foil velocity from which shock pressure can be estimated. Experimental values of shock transit time, shock velocity and shock pressure were observed to agree well with the values using one-dimensional multi-group radiation hydrodynamic simulations

X-ray and ion emission characteristics of plasmas ablated from solid materials using a high power Nd: glass laser

X-ray and ion emissions from high temperature plasmas from solid targets with different atomic numbers have been studied. Plasma is generated using a high power Nd:Glass laser generating focused intensity in the range of 1012 to 1013 Watts/cm2 on targets. Plasma temperature is typically between 50 to 100 eV. X-ray emission scaling as a function of laser intensity as well as ion velocity has been measured in these targets. Non-uniform plasma expansion and generation of fast ions are observed for targets with higher atomic numbers

Particle size effect on velocity of gold particle embedded laser driven plastic targets

A scheme to enhance the target foil velocity has been investigated for a direct drive inertial fusion target. Polymer PVA (polyvinyl alcohol or (C2H4O)n) target foils of thickness 15–20 μm were used in plain form and also embedded with gold in the nano-particle (Au-np) or micro-particle (Au-mp) form. Nano-particles were of 20–50 nm and micro-particles of 2–3 μm in size. 17% higher target velocity was measured for foils embedded with nano-particle gold (Au-np) as compared to targets embedded with micro-particles gold (Au-mp). The weight of gold in both cases was in the range 40–55% of the full target weight (atomic percentage of about 22%). Experiments were performed with the single beam of the Prague Asterix Laser System (PALS) at 0.43 μm wavelength (3ω of the fundamental wavelength), 120 Joule energy and 300 psec pulse duration. Laser intensity on the target was about 1015 W/cm2. A simple model has been proposed to explain the experimental results