SCIENTISTS at the Virginia Tech Institute claim microelectronics can be used to analyse exhaled breath to determine if people have been exposed potentially toxic substances.
By analysing exhaled breath with microelectronics, the researchers say it is possible to quickly and non-invasively conduct toxicity tests on humans.
According to Andrea M. Dietrich, Masoud Agah, and their students Heather Vereb and Bassam Alfeeli, exhaled breath is known to contain traces of any potentially toxic substances that people may have inhaled.
Research has shown that those amounts are an accurate reflection of the levels that exist in a person's blood.
With improvements in test and analysis technologies and electronics, it is now possible to detect minute amounts of substances in the breath quickly.
The study was supported by the Virginia Tech Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Sciences and the National Science Foundation.