Krishnakumar Nangeelil, Christina Hall, and Zaijing Sun (all Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences) and their collaborator, Wesley Frey at the McClellan Nuclear Research Center of the University of California Davis, published an article titled, "Biomarker response of Spanish moss to heavy metal air pollution in the low country of the Savannah River basin," in the Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry.

The neutron activation of this study was done at the UC Davis reactor, the most powerful TRIGA reactor in universities. The results indicate that Spanish moss is an ideal biomarker for air quality monitoring, and there is a significant enhancement of heavy metal concentrations for Spanish moss living in high-traffic zones. Nangeelil is a postdoctoral scholar in the School of Integrated Health Sciences, and Hall is a graduate student majoring in environmental health physics. This research was conducted by the group of Health, Environment, and Radiation Detection (HERD).