Startup Statera Environmental is Commercializing Passive Sampling Technology to Enhance the Risk Analysis Process

Dr. Damian Shea and his team at North Carolina State University have developed a new passive sampling technology that provides more accurate estimates of chronic exposure to hundreds of bioavailable chemicals in water, as part of the UNC Superfund Research Program’s Project 4. In addition, a new start-up company, Statera, LLC, has been created by Dr. Shea to manufacture, market and distribute this new technology to users in the United States and across the globe.

The technology, called a non-selective passive sampling device (ns-PSD), enables risk assessors involved with Superfund and other hazardous waste sites to gain critical information related to bioavailability, or the ability of a chemical to be taken up into animals and the human body, as well as time-weighted averages of contaminant concentrations in surface waters. Risk assessors can then better understand and predict exposure rates and develop more accurate human health risk assessments.