Indoor Air & Safety

Real-time, comprehensive evaluation of indoor air quality.

Many volatile organic compounds (VOCs) pose risks to human health and the general well-being of modern society.

Some have severe acute toxicity, such as fumigation chemicals and chemical warfare agents. Others have chronic health effects and are carcinogenic, such as benzene and formaldehyde. SIFT-MS provides a one-stop, easy-to-use solution for indoor air, workplace and security applications. Sample delivery options can be customized to meet diverse analytical needs.

Container safety

Personnel inspecting or devanning shipping containers are at risk of being exposed to a cocktail of chemical compounds present in the air inside the container.

Hazardous vapor compounds such as fumigants are regularly introduced to ensure the container contents meet international phytosanitary requirements. A container fumigation study conducted in Germany on over 500 containers indicated that up to 35% of the shipping containers contained fumigant concentrations that exceeded TRGS 512 safety levels.

Evidence shows that exposure to fumigants, such as methyl bromide, can cause psychological and neurological problems, as well as DNA damage.

Figure 4 right FumigantScanDangerous

Easily interpreted results from SIFT-MS analysis of gas samples taken from two shipping containers: one container is safe to enter, while the other is unsafe.

Learn more about SIFT-MS capabilities in Indoor Air & Safety

Application Note

Simple Determination of Formaldehyde Adsorption by Merino Wool Using SIFT-MS

This study demonstrates the ease with which construction materials can be evaluated for their formaldehyde adsorption efficacy, by utilizing direct analysis with selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS). With this approach, merino wool is shown to be extremely effective in adsorbing formaldehyde from air.

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Application Note

Chloramine Analysis, Using SIFT-MS

Exposure to chloramines is a recognized health hazard in the home, recreation centers, and the workplace.  SIFT-MS easily resolves all chloramines and chlorine and provides results in real-time.  Learn more about how to protect the indoor air safety of your environment.

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Brochure

SIFT-MS Solutions That Protect People

This brochure outlines several SIFT-MS solutions that provide protection for employees and the general public including fumigant and toxic chemical detection, border security and customs, chemical warfare agent identification, and indoor air safety.

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Whitepaper

Rapid Identification and Quantification of Common Fumigants and Toxic Chemicals in the Shipping Industry

SIFT-MS is the first technology proven capable of rapidly, simply and accurately detecting and quantifying a broad range of fumigants and TICs, without unnecessarily disrupting movements through freight-handling facilities. With an ability to identify compounds well below risk levels for long-term exposure, SIFT-MS is successfully protecting workers in the shipping and border security industries.

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Whitepaper

SIFT-MS: A New Perspective on Monitoring of Occupational Chemical Exposure

SIFT-MS is a proven technology used for real-time monitoring of air quality and non-invasive testing of human breath.
It provides analysis of raw whole-air samples – that is, analysis without sample preparation.  This whitepaper provides an overview of SIFT-MS and its suitability for OSH applications, particularly the monitoring of toxins on workers' breath.

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Webinar

Part 2: Indoor Air Quality and Workplace Safety Monitoring

In this webinar, we discuss applications in these areas:

  • Real-time IAQ monitoring
  • Formaldehyde adsorption by furnishings
  • Breath-based monitoring of exposure to volatile compounds
  • Protection of frontline workers from fumigation chemicals
  • Vehicle interior air quality analysis
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Webinar

Syft App Talks #15. Source Apportionment and Quantification of Liquid and Headspace Leaks from Closed System Transfer Devices

A system to differentiate and quantify liquid and headspace leaks from closed system transfer devices (CSTDs) is presented by Dr. Amos Doepke.  Dr. Doepke is a chemist and Senior Service Fellow at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

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Application Note

Real-Time Speciation of Ethylbenzene from the Xylenes Using SIFT-MS

Direct mass spectrometry (DMS) techniques invariably struggle to speciate ethylbenzene from the xylene isomers, yet increasingly regulators are imposing different emission and exposure limits for these compounds. This application note describes a significant breakthrough for DMS, because selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) can readily achieve direct, realtime speciation of the xylenes from ethylbenzene.

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Application Note

Syft Tracer: The Next Generation of Volatile Impurities Analysis for Enhanced Workflows

This app note introduces the next generation of SIFT-MS, Syft TracerTM, which launched at Pittcon 2023.  It revolutionizes volatile impurities analysis workflows through unparalleled speed, performance stability, and reproducibility.  Learn about how this innovation to real-time trace gas detection outpaces chromatography-based methods in the analysis of challenging analytes such as formaldehyde in a PEG excipient.

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Document

Recent developments and applications of selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT‐MS)

SIFT‐MS is now recognized as the most versatile analytical technique for the identification and quantification of trace gases down to the parts‐per‐trillion by volume, pptv, range. This statement is supported by the wide reach of its applications, from real‐time analysis, obviating sample collection of very humid exhaled breath, to its adoption in industrial scenarios for air quality monitoring. This review touches on the recent extensions to the underpinning ion chemistry kinetics library and the alternative challenge of using nitrogen carrier gas instead of helium. 

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Document

SIFT-MS: Quantifying the Volatiles You Smell . . . and the Toxics You Don’t

SIFT-MS has been widely applied to quantitative analysis of a broad range of VOCs in applications from food products to workplace safety to environmental monitoring, and most recently to pharmaceutical testing. This review surveys the applications of SIFT-MS in odor analysis and in workplace, environmental and consumer protection, with a particular focus on the complementarity of this real-time mass spectrometry analyzer to sensor technology and conventional laboratory techniques—in particular, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS).

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Webinar

The Latest Innovation of Real-Time, High-Throughput Volatile Impurities Analysis by SIFT-MS

Join us for this webinar to learn about Syft Tracer, the latest advancement of real-time, trace gas analysis by SIFT-MS which launched at Pittcon 2023. Hear how the recent product innovations unlock analytical bottlenecks and enable faster decisions to be made in critical process steps.

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Application Note

Wastewater Odor Analysis by SIFT-MS

In this application note, the performance of SIFT-MS is evaluated for analysis of odors from diverse sources at a modern wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). SIFT-MS provides comprehensive, quantitative profiling of odor sources and can identify operational abnormalities.  In particular, the results presented demonstrate that methyl mercaptan is almost always a more significant odorant at this WWTP than hydrogen sulfide and confirm that the relative abundances of these odorants vary significantly.

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Brochure

Syft Air Analysis

SIFT-MS easily detects toxic volatile compounds in container air space such as fumigants and TICs.  Trace volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are detected in real-time, keeping shipping container workers safe.  Learn about how SIFT-MS is used in the detection of fumigants, TIC, and contraband.

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Webinar

Syft Contributes Real-Time VOC Data to Aeroparts VOC Ozone Converter Bleed Air Study

This video describes the bleed air study led by AeroParts in Oct 2023 to understand the differences in VOC ozone converter performance.   VOC ozone converters have the potential for preventing airplane cabin smoke odor fume events.  Learn how SIFT-MS enabled this important study by providing real-time VOC analysis of simulated engine bleed air.

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Document

Real-Time Analysis of Volatile PFAS Compounds in Ambient Air

This presentation from Dr. Leslie Silva at Pittcon 2024 describes preliminary work that demonstrates the ability of SIFT-MS to analyze volatile PFAS compounds in real-time.  The use of negative reagent ions gives SIFT-MS a distinct selectivity advantage over competing technologies and legacy chromatographic methods.

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