Mine sweeper for enviromental chemists - not a game!

Question: Can one make a general statement on whether the explosive concentrations that the dogs are exposed to in the REST system are higher, equal or lower than the explosive concentrations to which the dogs would have been exposed in the field?

Additional information: Mines are typically buried within the top 20 cm of a soil.

In the field situation, it is reasonable to assume that there is a partition equilibrium of chemicals between the soil surface and an adjacent air layer of a few mm thickness. Further away from the soil surface, all scents are quickly diluted by turbulent air movement. The dogs get their nose very close to the ground during sniffing in order to access the equilibrium concentrations close to the surface.

Neglect potential temperature effects.

Help 1: Assume that in the REST procedure dust is sampled evenly from a soil surface with an area of 200 m². This dust is collected in a container. Assume further that there was one mine buried in the area from which dust was sampled. It is reasonable to assume that the explosives from the mine spread out a little on the soil surface thus contaminating an estimated maximum area on the surface of about 10 m². This is 5% of the total surface area that was sampled.

	Proceed