Automated oil vapor inhalation exposure system

In August 2020 there were over 186,000 employees in the oil and gas extraction industry in the United States (United States Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020). Many workers in the upstream oil extraction industry have potential risk of crude oil vapor (COV) inhalation. There are many current knowledge gaps regarding the health effects from inhalation of complex mixtures found in crude oil vapors. To aid research in filling these gaps, an automated system that could carefully deliver and control the COV concentration within an animal inhalation exposure chamber was needed. The objective of this project was to develop an automated computer-controlled system to expose small laboratory animals to precise concentrations of crude oil vapor (COV).