MT14 Vaping Detection

[WV_Wells]

Has anyone come across the TVOC and/or PM 2.5 threshold values for vaping? I can't seem to find even ballpark numbers for this.

[Soichiro-Ono]

Hello.

I hope these are helpful.

MT14 Datasheet - Indoor Air Quality Monitor - Cisco Meraki

>Technical Specifications:

MT14 Air Quality Sensor Metrics Explained - Cisco Meraki

Regard,

[WV_Wells]

Hi - Thanks for the reply. I have seen these documents and they do not answer my question. What is a good baseline value to detect vaping? Is it in the Poor range or Inadequate, and at what point? 

[Soichiro-Ono]

Hello.

You can see a threshold here, is that not the point of view you're looking for?

Regard,

[WV_Wells]

No, it just gives a range of air quality. What value would vaping first be detected? I understand there are a lot of variables involved, but where is a good place to set your threshold, so someone is not reacting too often to other TVOCs, etc. Is at 3000, 10000, in between? For now, I have chosen 3000 for TVOC...

[Soichiro-Ono]

Ah, now it's not a vaping-specific measurement, so asking Meraki for the information you want would be difficult. One way to do this is to offer a “Make a wish” to create a separate display for vaping.

One way to do this is to offer a “Make a wish” to create a separate display for vaping.

Currently, the display is not targeted to vaping, so it is not possible to limit the display (set a threshold) of information to just the vaping substances that you are looking for, and to specify which of these indicators The information about whether or not it was detected will not be made public beyond what is stated in the documentation. As user demand increases and development priority increases, it will be able to independently measure, threshold, and display in line with vaping metrics.

Regard,

[RJacklin]

This post has been here for a while, but I'd encourage anyone who has been using the MT14 to share a workflow or some tips for determining if a specific reading is recognized for vaping versus cigarette smoke or from other "smoke-able" items. The thresholds for air quality make sense as outlined in previous posts on this thread, but determining when the air quality is changed for something like deodorant spray, perfume, or toilet cleaning supplies is the real challenge.

Our current settings for alerts (Both for TVOC and PM2.5) are set to alert anytime the air quality is above 64 for PM2.5 or above 9000 for TVOC. To date (over 5 months), we haven't been able to determine when a reading might possibly correlate to a specific airborne items. For example, will cleaning supplies generally get to a certain level of TVOC or PM2.5 when used in a bathroom? To what level would someone smoking marijuana cause the TVOC and PM2.5 to go up? Is there a threshold we could use to weed out (no pun intended) some readings than another.

Again, just curious what others may have deduced since implementation.

Thanks in advance for sharing!

[BDillon]

We found the frequency of the notifications was a driver for setting the thresholds for the values. Cleaning products were never and issue in terms of values recorded. If these values are so high as to trigger notifications then the Cleaning products could potentially be incorrectly used risking the health of staff!

Our use case for the MT14 was in the Changing rooms of a School Sport facility, used by Secondary aged Pupils 11yrs - 16yrs
Because this was a closed room the values would peak in an instant. Being a closed space, with what appeared to be little ventilation the PM would linger and go down very very slowly. As the threshold for the notifcations was in constant breach, they would receive spam like amounts.
Therefore we set the values a little higher, and the time between them a little more.

The problem was such, they have now decided to remove them, as they are understaffed and cannot manage the false accounts of vaping, and the number of triggered events.
This however is only going to be detrimental to the health of pupils vaping. Education in the risks of using such devices is ultimately where this needs to go.