Glenn C. Morrison Associate
Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering 221
Butler-Carleton Hall (573) 341-7192;
gcm@mst.edu
Feeding
my research group at Alex’s Pizza (I’m a big spender…)
MY ACADEMIC INTERESTS
I’m most interested in the physics and chemistry of indoor air pollution. You’ll see statistics on many web-sites stating that indoor air quality is much worse than outdoor air quality. This is broadly true, but needs to be qualified. Some (but not all) chemical and particulate pollutants do exist at higher concentrations indoors than outdoors because they are often generated indoors. In a 1997 analysis, an EPA risk assessment group placed several indoor pollutants among the top 5 environmental health risks to North Americans. Given the human health imperative, I attempt to promote awareness of the problem in the courses I teach and the research projects I and my students work on. Check out my acting skills (such as they are) in this Public Service Announcement produced by students at the University of Texas, Austin, IGERT program. For a comprehensive CV go here. Also, check out the activities of the Environmental Research Center. Special thanks to Honglan Shi for, against all odds, keeping the analytical instruments running in top condition!
COURSES I TEACH AT Missouri S&T
Introduction to Environmental Engineering
Introduction to Air Pollution
Air Pollution Control Engineering
Physico-Chemical Processes in Environmental Engineering
Indoor Air Pollution
INDOOR AIR 2011: AUSTIN TEXAS
Between June 5-10, 2011, the University of Texas, Austin hosted the biggest conference on indoor air quality of all time: the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate’s Indoor Air 2011. I was the Technical Chair, which means I was responsible for making sure the conference was full of the latest and greatest in the science of indoor air quality and comfort. I think it was a great success and am grateful to everybody involved especially Rich Corsi (president), Cath Polito (logistics and money), the staff at CLEE and all the students who made videos, chaired sessions, and helped make the conference run so smoothly!
CURRENT RESEARCH AND RELATED PROJECTS
(roughly reverse chronological order)
Residences contaminated by
methamphetamine labs. It goes without
saying that illegal methamphetamine labs do not follow OSHA safety guidelines!
Often set up in rented residences, these labs contaminate everything in the
house including the materials that make up the building structure. Like a
sponge, homes soak up chemicals and release them later. Even if a home is
cleaned by commonly recommended methods, chemicals that have penetrated deep
into the building structure can continue to seep out after a new family has
moved in. We are working with the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) and the University of
Texas, Austin to determine how long the residence continues to be a problem and
how to do a better job of protecting future residences. While this research is
directed specifically to meth labs, we will learn much more and we will be able
to extend the results to many other persistent chemicals such as flame
retardants, pesticides and plasticizers.
Building
materials as passive filters of indoor air pollution. Buildings may
have the ability to remove indoor air pollutants effectively and passively (no
energy required!). The US Green Building Council has awarded us a grant
(2009-2010) to develop test methods that can identify materials that are
effective at reducing indoor concentrations of ozone and ozone reaction
products. This is a collaborative project with the UT Austin. This research
builds on conceptual development presented at Healthy Buildings, Lisbon, 2006 and a more recent collaboration
with the UT Austin. UT student Donna Kunkel shows that some materials are very
effective at passively removing ozone in the UT test house. Ultimately these
materials, if used to retrofit homes of at-risk individuals, could improve
longevity and quality of life for those living in smoggy cities. Relevant journal articles: Kunkel et al.,
2009. Relevant conference papers
Morrison et al., 2006 and Kunkel et al. 2008.
Chemistry
and transport near and on human surfaces. Since proximity to a pollutant source is as important at the
source strength, we have begun evaluating pollutant dynamics and chemistry in
the region around the human body, specifically the head region. We have learned
that ozone flux to human hair is very fast, and that ozone reactions with human
sebum will be responsible for lower ozone exposure, but also responsible for
higher exposure to oxidation products such as aldehydes and ketones. Relevant journal article: Pandrangi and Morrison,
2008. Also excerpted at New
Scientist, Discover and Popular
Science. Also see our collaborative work with NIOSH on squalene, a component of skin oil: Wells et al., 2008.
Working with Atila Novoselac and
Donghyun Rim of the University of Texas, Austin, we have simulated ozone and
reaction product concentrations in the human breathing zone. This work
demonstrates that ozone is substantially depleted in the breathing zone and
that microenvironmental measurements overestimate
ozone exposure. Relevant journal article:
Rim, Novoselac and Morrison, Indoor Air,
2009.
Continuing to work with the fine
folks at the University of Texas, Austin, (specifically Richard Corsi) we have
also learned that ozone will react with fragrances (e.g. perfumes) around the
head region, increasing exposure to sub-micron aerosol that are produced by
these reactions. Relevant journal
article: Corsi et al., 2007. Check
our Rich Corsi’s head shot in National Geographic!
Exposure history derived from indoor
surfaces. In one of my newer research projects, I am exploring the
possibility of extracting indoor exposure histories for air pollutants from the
building materials themselves. For example, the diffusion of benzene into vinyl
flooring leaves a quantifiable concentration profile. This profile is analogous
to a fuzzy photograph of the recent time-history of indoor benzene
concentrations. Thus, core samples of materials such as vinyl flooring,
concrete, paint, or even couch cushions can provide rich detail about the
timing and intensity of indoor pollution episodes. Relevant journal article: Morrison
et al., 2007.
More recently, undergraduate Jon McKinney has been tackling this problem with gusto and has developed methods to measure concentrations gradients within solid building furnishings. These measurements are the next piece of the puzzle in our goal of evaluating exposures in the past. Jon has won several research poster competitions, and won a competitive EPA GRO fellowship to support his research for the 2008-2009 school year… AND an EPA STAR graduate fellowship for his research on this topic for the 2010-2012 school years. Go Jon!
Indoor surface chemistry of terpenes. Many consumer products and personal
care products release huge amounts of fragrance compounds known as terpenes and terpenoids. These
compounds readily react with ozone in air, but what about surfaces? It turns
out that indoor surfaces can hold onto fragrance molecules, thus providing them
more time to react with ozone (if they so choose!). We are in the early stages
of quantifying the fundamental reaction rates at surfaces with the goal of
better understanding how air fresheners and perfumes affect indoor air quality.
Relevant journal article: Wells et al.
2009. Relevant conference papers: Shu and Morrison, 2009; Springs and
Morrison, 2007
Workshop on
Interfacial Chemistry in Indoor Environments. In July of 2007, we
put on a workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the
California Air Resources Board. The objectives of this workshop were to
identify research needs and rank gaps in the existing knowledgebase of indoor
interfacial chemistry as it relates to human exposure to air pollutants. Based
on presentations and discussions, the participants identified the most fruitful
short-term research courses to follow, outlined medium and long-term research
goals, instigated new collaborations and identified key existing resources and
necessary improvements to the existing research infrastructure. Many
recommendations for future research were put forward in workshop discussions;
the following summarize research priorities with notable consensus:
1. A molecular level understanding of physical and chemical processes occurring at indoor surfaces
2. Composition and morphology of indoor surfaces and interfaces
3. Health consequences of indoor air/interfacial chemistry
4. Reactions occurring at the human interface and with human residues (e.g. skin oils) and bioeffluents
A complete report with seminar
topics, participants, and recommendations can be found here: WICIE 2007 workshop report (Featured in Environmental Science and
Technology, Morrison 2008).
SPECIAL THANKS TO Lucretia Eaton now in the Sponsored Programs Office!
Field
evaluation of secondary pollutant emissions in homes. My National Science Foundation CAREER award is
funding field research to determine the extent of ozone initiated surface
chemistry in real homes. Following several homes over a period of years, this
research will show whether the slow accumulation of surface oils and dirt is
more important than the underlying surfaces in controlling overall secondary
emissions into homes. This comprehensive five-year project includes
laboratory and field chamber experiments. Small laboratory chambers are used to
measure ozone induced aldehyde emission rates on representative materials from
real homes. Field chambers are used to periodically isolate and test indoor
surfaces in the homes themselves to examine the influence of surface aging,
soiling and cleaning. Relevant journal
article: Wang and Morrison, 2010; Wang
and Morrison, 2006
Alkaline/acidic organic pollutant
interactions with indoor surfaces. Internal funding (University of
Missouri Research Board) has allowed me to pursue a study of the influence of
surface pH on the surface adsorption of basic(alkaline) organic compounds such
as nicotine or methamphetamine (see Meth Labs up above). Basic organic
compounds can become strongly bound to surfaces by becoming protonated.
However, concentrations of indoor CO2 and ammonia can vary dramatically
(e.g. when ammonia is used as a cleaning
agent) and change the surface pH, thereby driving nicotine or other compounds
into indoor air. Surprisingly, our research is demonstrating that competitive
adsorption of ammonia may dominate over surface pH in determining the strength
of adsorption of basic organic compounds.
Relevant journal article: Ongwandee et
al., 2005
Pollutant transport to indoor surfaces. In conjunction with my surface chemistry work, I am pursuing a better understanding of the physics of pollutant transport to and from indoor surfaces. My students and I have developed several methods for measuring indoor mass-transfer coefficients and have been applying them to real indoor settings. Using micro flux-sensors, we are able to measure transport in real-time and correlate this with indoor parameters such as ventilation rate, occupant activities, etc. The tools we have developed will allow us to generate a parameterized database of mass-transfer coefficients for use in improving indoor air quality models. Relevant journal articles: Morrison et al., 2006, Morrison and Wiseman, 2006