
Ask HN: What equipment measures mold, dust, tree, grass and ragweed levels? - usermac
I ask because I&#x27;d like to monitor these in my office and inside my home.<p>I use the WebMD Allergy app and I assume gets its data from a government tracking or who knows where but I&#x27;ve read where as the environmental impact of climate change grows, so will allergies.
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dalke
Mechanical collection followed by manual inspection, often through a
microscope. This being HN, "a prime candidate for disruption via cloud-based
deep learning methods." ;)

Mold testing is hard to research because there are no standards. As
[http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicati...](http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicationId=920)
comments,
"[http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicati...](http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicationId=920")

[http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/household-
saf...](http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/household-
safety/tips/how-to-test-for-toxic-mold4.htm) goes on to say that "Consumer
Reports conducted an evaluation of home mold testing kits in 2006, and none of
the four kits they looked at received a recommendation. The problems ranged
from the kits having no expiration dates, potentially compromising the
results, to being difficult to use"

One solution seems to be to lead the mold spores land on a Petri dish,
incubate the dish, and inspect to see what grows. The non-professional
solution is to use one's nose to check if anything smells moldy.

Pollen count is also done by manual inspection, in this case by inspection of
the pollen grains. See
[http://www.wral.com/weather/blogpost/1389497/](http://www.wral.com/weather/blogpost/1389497/)
. At [http://www.aaaai.org/global/nab-pollen-counts/counting-
stati...](http://www.aaaai.org/global/nab-pollen-counts/counting-
stations/start-a-station.aspx) you can see how people get certified to be a
pollen counter: "A counter will receive a pollen slide with instruction sheet.
The slide and completed score sheet is returned to the NAB and graded. Pollen
certification will be given if the pollen grains have been counted correctly."

It then goes on with mold counter: "A counter will receive a mold slide with
instruction sheet. The slide and completed score sheet is returned to the NAB
and graded. Mold certification will be given if the spores have been counted
correctly."

~~~
philip1209
Are spectroscopic methods possible, or are the particles too heterogeneous?

~~~
kaybe
Maybe checking the scattering pattern would work (scattering phase function),
there are already detectors for that. I don't know whether there is a database
of patterns already available, but it could be possible. The corresponding
field would be aerosol physics.

~~~
niels_olson
I wonder if flow cytometry would work? Have a venturi on mild suction,
designed to flow a jacket layer around the perimeter, and a laser to detect
forward and side scatter. That gives you size and complexity. That plus
location, time, wind, and season could probably give you a very useful signal.
If not in the home, certainly if the data was sent to central system, a la
weather stations.

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BostonEnginerd
You can measure gross particulate levels with indication of sizing using
something like this:

[https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9689](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9689)

This would give you some indication of what's floating around. Further
analysis like what dalke mentioned would be necessary to figure out exactly
what the particulate makeup is.

 _edit_ \- The sharp sensor does not give an indication of sizing.

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pasbesoin
This is the source of the often reported allergen counts in the Chicagoland
area:

[http://www.gottliebhospital.org/allergycount](http://www.gottliebhospital.org/allergycount)

I don't have time right now to dig further, myself, but I know people who know
Dr. Leija and this leaves me with the impression he is a... "good egg", I
guess I'll say.

Meteorologist Tom Skilling is probably the most frequent reporter of Dr.
Leija's / Gottlieb's values. He has an "Ask Tom" feature; this is the type of
question he might enjoy digging into and reporting.

~~~
dsthode
Correct me if I'm wrong but if the procedure is counting spores under the
microscope, couldn't a computer vision system be trained with machine learning
techniques to count an air sample under the microscope too?

~~~
dalke
See [http://xkcd.com/1425/](http://xkcd.com/1425/) , or my second sentence at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9818893](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9818893)
. ;)

------
mmastrac
In theory Birdi will be offering this as part of their smoke-and-everything-
else-detector, but they haven't released anything yet so it's not something
you can order today: [http://getbirdi.com/](http://getbirdi.com/)

"Birdi helps you track the health of your home. Whether it's dust, VOCs,
temperature & humidity or how stale the air is. Even external dangers such as
pollution, pollen and particulates, Birdi is there to help you breathe a
little easier."

~~~
desdiv
On their indiegogo page the estimated delivery date is October 2014, but their
latest blog post says October _2015_.

I'm guessing the actual date is never.

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junto
As someone that has allergic rhinitis, dyshydrotic excema and allergic asthma,
I would welcome a scanner that could tell me which allergens are present in my
home and on my skin.

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hwang89
There's this:
[http://www.producthunt.com/tech/awair-2](http://www.producthunt.com/tech/awair-2)

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OceanPowers
pretty sure Sensirion could build you a solution out of off the shelf IP.

[http://www.sensirion.com/](http://www.sensirion.com/)

you're welcome.

