# Development of a Route of Exposure Model Using Silicone Wristbands as Personal Samplers

> **NIH NIH R44** · MYEXPOSOME, INC. · 2024 · $896,020

## Abstract

Project Summary
The major goal of this SBIR is to overcome critical barriers to wide-spread adoption and market expansion of
Silicone Wristbands (SWBs) as a tool for highly personalized environmental monitoring. SWBs represent a
recent research-based sampling approach in over 70 publications representing 1000s of participants and 100s
of detected chemicals but is not available to the consumer market. Using SWBs is appealing because they are
easy to wear, have a wide range of potential capture, and do not require training, energy, or maintenance.
However, there are several key problems that need to be addressed:
1. The cost of analysis is currently too high to expand to the consumer market. One way to reduce costs and
 lower prices is to focus chemical analyses on high impact compounds that are detected frequently and of
 high interest (toxicologically and topically).
2. The effect and magnitude of skin and air exposures when reporting chemical data from SWBs is not well
 understood. This makes SWB data communication challenging, and back-calculations to compare against
 published benchmarks (OSHA/EPA/etc.) or other published data difficult.
3. The complexity of wristband data poses novel challenges for reporting results back to researchers, let alone
 people with less exposure science experience in the consumer market. The range and complexity of
 chemical exposures that can be measured represent challenges that must be addressed to provide
 meaningful information for all potential users of the technology.
The proposed application describes using real-world SWB data to validate chemical lists of high interest
compounds as well as models developed in Phase I to help predict dominant routes of exposure. Additionally
for Phase II, we will gather real-world feedback to finalize chemical exposure reports suitable to a wide
audience. SWBs will be used in paired configurations (“traditional” and “air-only”) that will distinguish routes
of exposure and be analyzed for over 1500 chemical compounds including volatiles, pesticides, flame
retardants, phthalates, fragrances, and food-related chemicals.
There are four Aims to this proposal: 1) validate a focused chemical list from internal data and Phase I to
simplify a new and cheaper chemical analysis, 2) determine if dermal contact is a significant proportion of
chemical exposure through a field demonstration among 300 individuals , 3) optimize and validate predictive
exposure models, and 4) create a new chemical exposure report with the help of expert partners like ICF and
Silent Spring. With up to 600 samples screened for over 1500 organic chemicals and report feedback from 300
individuals, these datasets will address critical research goals and create new markets and opportunities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10818924
- **Project number:** 2R44ES033586-02A1
- **Recipient organization:** MYEXPOSOME, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Steven Gehrig O'Connell
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $896,020
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2024-03-01 → 2026-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10818924

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10818924, Development of a Route of Exposure Model Using Silicone Wristbands as Personal Samplers (2R44ES033586-02A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10818924. Licensed CC0.

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