We designed two new samplers for monitoring airborne particulates, including fungal and fern spores and plant pollen, that rely on natural wind currents (Passive Environmental Sampler) or a battery operated fan (Active Environmental Sampler). Both samplers are modeled after commercial devices such as the Rotorod® and the Burkard® samplers, but are more economical and require less maintenance than commercial devices. We conducted wind tunnel comparisons of our two new samplers to Rotorod® samplers using synthetic polyethylene spheres (12 - 160 µm in diameter) to compare numbers and size range of particulates that are captured by the samplers. This dataset contains raw numbers of polyethylene spheres that were captured by the samplers during eight separate trials in a sealed room with constant recirculating air flow.
Polyethylene Particle Detection (counts) during Environmental Sampler Comparison