Appeal No. 1997-3056 Application No. 08/377,966 1. In apparatus for monitoring the concentration of an airborne analyte appertaining to the family of substances comprising lead, cadmium, zinc, chromium, uranium, or compounds of these metals, miscellaneous carcinogens, and other toxic contaminants, the improvement comprising; a substantially gas- and liquid-impermeable container means; means for introducing a substantially analyte-free liquid extractant into said container means; means for rapidly sampling ambient air at a rate of at least 100 liters/minute and collecting particulates therefrom into said liquid extractant, said sampling means comprising an air intake means and an air venting means; means for solubilizing the analyte contained in said particulates into a volume of not more than about 40 milliliters of liquid extractant, wherein said sampling means and said solubilizing means are both within the same enclosure and combined in a single device; means for removing from said container means an analyte- enriched liquid extractant; and means for estimating the concentration of the analyte in said analyte enriched liquid extractant. The following references have been applied by the Examiner in the rejection before us on this appeal: Zaromb et al. (Zaromb) 5,173,264 Dec. 22, 1992 DeAngelis et al. (DeAngelis) Anal. Chem., Vol. 48, No. 14: pp. 2262-2263 Dec. (1976) Heijne et al. (Heijne), Anal. Chem. Acta., 100 pp. 193-205 (1978) Gunasingham et al. (Gunasingham), J. Electroanal. Chem, 186 pp. 51-61 (1985) 22Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007