A Device That Can Tell Other People When You Are Smoking (VPR)

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Dartmouth researchers have developed a new device that can signal if someone is smoking tobacco or marijuana, reports VPR. The device, which gets plugged into a wall outlet, has sensors coated with polymers that are sensitive to specific chemicals found in tobacco and marijuana.

“The idea is that when it detects a smoking event it will send a signal out over WiFi to let people know that smoking has happened,”Joseph BelBruno, a professor of chemistry and the founder of FreshAir Sensors, tells VPR.

As VPR explains, hotels are a targeted market for the sensors—to be used to detect if people are smoking in non-smoking rooms.

Listen to the full story, broadcast 10/29/14 on VPR.

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