http://www.menssanaresearch.com/btabout.html
"We have developed a portable breath collection apparatus (BCA) which can collect breath samples virtually anywhere. A person sits breathing quietly into the BCA for two minutes, while it captures breath VOCs onto a small sorbent trap which looks like a stainless steel cigarette. This trap is then sent to the laboratory for analysis by gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy"
Interestingly, in their pilot study, they identify a large number of alkanes and alkane derivatives which are linked to oxidative stress (normally caused by infection, but there may be other reasons):
http://www.menssanaresearch.com/pilotmalador.pdf
The normal breath tests such as OralChroma and Halimeter do not test for any of these! However, we should bear in mind that their sorbent trap method selectively absorbs compounds with 2 or more carbon atoms which would underestimate the levels of the compounds shown by OralChroma.
I need to do a bit more reading on their analysis but I believe this has so much potential for us! I urge anyone in the US to get in touch. They may even pay you if they have a malodor study going on
![Cool 8)](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)
I will contact them very soon and let them know of this site.