A Multijet Aerosol Nebulizer System for Controlled Clinical Studies in Environmental Chambers

Controlled clinical studies directed at health-related effects of air pollutants are based largely on the use of environmental chambers. Typically, such chambers are single-pass systems requiring the production of large amounts of pollutant each minute and continuing for several hours. In order to produce a stable aerosol concentration and particle size distribution for up to 8 hours without operator adjustments, we have developed a special aerosol nebulizer system. Basically, the system evolved from the single-jet Dautrebande (D30) nebulizer. We designed a unit to accommodate up to eight such jets. An 8-L reservoir was provided for the aqueous solution (or suspension). Delivery of the solution to be aerosolized to the jets is accomplished by the Bernoulli effect of each air jet, thereby “lifting” the solution from the reservoir to the jet where aerosol droplet production occurs. Because the number of air jets can be varied, a factor of eight in aerosol mass output is simply achieved at the same solute co...