1. Introduction to Mobile Laboratories
Mobile laboratory is a lab that can be transported by a truck, van, or train to various places by road or rail. These labs visit different places to conduct site-specific research and analyses. Modern labs are in increasing demand to be mobile or semi-mobile to enable rapid research responses to the ever-increasing ventures in modern day. Going mobile with modern labs is now possible because of modern transport vehicles like trucks or vans that can easily be equipped with all the amenities available in a stationary lab. A mobile laboratory can perform the same functions as any stationary lab. These mobile units can carry out their operations near rural habitats and villages, or at construction sites or in industries located in remote places. Mobile labs have found applications in the area of environmental science, healthcare, forensics, diagnostics, industrial applications, and food science and technology. The development of mobile labs has made it possible to take the lab to the field and be the science-on-the-go units. Field research has often been conducted with the same rigor and quality one expects in a scientific laboratory. Recent advancements have helped to breed a greater acceptance of field research and the relativity of varying setups and conditions. One of the motivations to build such labs is the unpredictable nature of many terrains and environmental venues where researchers venture out. The modern-day lifestyle and environment are constantly challenging. The increasing human activities in the areas of industrialization, agricultural ventures, construction activities, and deforestation have also injected plenty of harmful chemicals and agents into the environment. The agile society has little patience to capture the event post facto; the immediate answer is to capture all events live, and that is what a mobile lab can help to achieve. The rapid diagnosis of blood, swabs, and other samples in healthcare needs to be handled in a war footing, which is possible only through a mobile lab. The versatility of modern applications requires one to have mobile screening of metals, pesticides, or even drugs at construction sites, agricultural research facilities, or at the chemical or pharmaceutical industries. Mobile labs have to overcome some challenges that stationary labs reduce, as these are increasing in need for the modern-day researcher. The greatest challenge with a mobile lab is logistics and timely operations. It has to be delivered to the right field location at the right time with all the necessary accessories to enable a minimum setup time.
2. Advantages of Using Trucks or Vans for Mobile Laboratories
Mobile laboratories are often set up inside trucks, SUVs, vans, trailers, and semi-trailers. This avoids the need to establish permanent facilities and allows the labs to be located wherever desired. One of the primary uses of this type of mobile laboratory system is in conducting research in the field, either in remote areas or in environments that are not compatible with traditional laboratory operations. In addition to carrying scientific equipment, these vehicles often have sleeping, eating, and toilet facilities to meet the personal needs of the staff who are operating the vehicles and to maximize the amount of time that the mobile laboratory is in operation.
The primary advantage of using trucks, vans, or SUVs is that they are easily and cheaply transported to anywhere that a road exists which is capable of accommodating the weight and size of the vehicle. This makes it relatively easy to transport extensive scientific laboratories to remote areas that are currently not serviced by any research facilities. Because they are inexpensive to locate, they are also able to be kept in various locations, so that in the event of a research project being initiated in the area, the vehicle is already on hand without the need for transport. They are also useful in emergency situations and during special projects. Trucks and vans are safe, suitable for housing laboratory equipment, and follow codes and standards. These laboratories are also suitable for teaching and educational purposes. The equipment may include security systems, overhead cabinetry, equipment racks, and all of them are fully air-conditioned. A typical layout of a mobile laboratory includes a work area, a meeting area, and a lab area, with walk-through access. Modern vans are also equipped with instrumentation, electrical supply, and chilled storage for sensitive laboratory use.
3. Types of Mobile Laboratories Based on Functionality
Thanks to the many technical possibilities, mobile laboratories are a compilation of a broad mesh of measures. Vehicles are created to deal with the capabilities of traffic, and at the same time with the functions to which a mobile lab vehicle can be put to use. What follows is a product developed by contemplating the overall view of the technical implementations to which these types of labs cater to make it easier for the three varieties to be of help and inspiration in every aspect. Possible Classification: Categorization into several areas by development differs fundamentally based on objective criteria. a) Special Application Areas: The mobile labs in item group 1 are used in all areas in which one or more other service functions are taken into account in conjunction with the main function. a.1.1 Areas of Environment: Here, a distinction is made in principle for central environmental protective labs, including measuring points for air quality, installation networks for emissions and deposition, and special environmental labs that cater to areas of metropolitan districts, lakes, and rivers, and exceptions. These suffer from the effects of particularly high levels of traffic in the city or take into account specific ecological conditions, and are then known as environmental mobiles. a.1.2 Areas of Healthcare: Healthcare mobiles need to deliver healthcare over wide areas and are used in different settings, such as at a patient’s home, in mobile field hospitals, during disasters, and in the armed forces, as well as in developing countries. a.1.3 Areas of Governmental and University Research: Important applications in this field are studies on marine and polar research and in the Andes mountains, as well as in research into earthquakes, with these vehicles also being used in this instance for disaster analysis requirements. Therefore, these laboratories are also known as disaster mobiles, even though their main focus lies elsewhere.
3.1. Environmental Monitoring and Analysis
“Mobile laboratories can be used to assess a spectrum of environmental matrices for contamination or pollution, including the air, water, and even soil. They are ideal methods of obtaining real-time information about an environment, which is needed in health and safety evaluations. By driving onto a site, analyses can be performed, and in situ collection methods can be devised depending on the outcome of initial testing. Quick acquisition of data is desirable and can be deployed in an emergency to assess degrees of contamination. Instantaneous answers are needed to solve pollution problems and administrative decisions. The environmental ‘lab-on-a-chip’ can prove to be a useful device in various environments, including soil and water. Some environmental management labs are geared to do quick tests and also have gas chromatography-mass spectrometry equipment for around 3–4 compounds per day. They could attach a ‘lab-on-a-chip’ device to get real-time data of the situation. Air quality modeling and pollution tracking assessments, for example, from volcano eruptions, with experimentation of ash and pollutant gases using a mobile lab, together with field work cup samplers, TEOM and gravimetric samplers, and other ambient air kits, are examples of its capacity for work. It was confirmed that they park the mobile lab at the ambient air sampling plots, reducing work time to a minimum, only moving the automatic samplers from the truck shell to the air-sampling inlet and out again.
Studies of the Lakes Region in Chile using a mobile laboratory van highlighted the beauty of the mobile lab, as they used hand-held infrared sensors for real-time measurements. LEDs can be used for fluorescence sensors or sensors for absorbance. Using polycarbonates or Teflon, 24 LEDs, a photomultiplier tube, cuvettes, and a white LED, they carried out methods for the detection of humic substances by fluorescence. Chlorophyll a in the cuvettes was analyzed by applying a method that uses ultraviolet light that fluoresces. ‘Lab-on-a-chip’ technology was used for analyzing water in a mobile laboratory. The large environmental surveillance programs often have few participants and frequently need equipment and technology that do not allow the immediate production of data. The establishment of mobile labs for simple field-manageable tests and sample collection with easy analysis is an important speed-up approach for large surveys. Emphasis is added to this technology with “Real-time results could become available by lab-on-a-chip technologies in the future,” thus if a manager moves, test results could be acquired before he or she leaves the field. In environmental hazard risk assessment, three different areas contribute to the problem: the area producing the hazard or affecting the environment, the area affected, and the matter and species through which the environment is affected. The present-day understanding of chemical fate, transport, toxicology, risk assessment, and risk to man, animal, and environment from pollutants and wastes must make conditions for sustainable development and risk management and not neglect random acute risks nor irreversible long-term environmental effects. Management measures involving living organisms, e.g., pharmaceuticals and microorganisms, may involve minor difficulties in assessment, but similar problems of safe utilization must also be solved.”
3.2. Medical and Healthcare Services
Another application for mobile laboratories is in the provision of medical and healthcare services. These mobile healthcare laboratories can be used to reach underserved populations, those in remote areas, and people, groups, and communities who have difficulty reaching traditional healthcare service centers. These mobile laboratories are designed to facilitate rapid diagnostics so that the patient can be treated in a single visit, thereby significantly reducing the response time to the client. Possible tests that could be performed with mobile health units in the field include general and basic blood work, CBC, and certain chemistry profiles. In the event of an accident or natural disaster, mobile laboratories could also be part of the emergency response strategy to quickly test blood for any life-threatening pathogens, as well as to help maintain community health surveillance. The ability of the SOT to provide easy access to monitoring-type testing also provides a new interface linking the public health system to the healthcare delivery system in remote areas to serve populations that do not normally have easy access to these services.
Recent pandemics and emerging infectious diseases have highlighted the need to develop such mobile medical healthcare delivery systems, and it is expected that local, state, and national health policy is likely to change in many countries in light of these events with a greater focus on surveillance, outbreak response, and preparedness, as well as improved integrated technology for communication between field and laboratories that allow different levels of testing in the field. The demand for this type of service is expected to grow in light of the recent pandemic as a way to better serve people in the safety and comfort of their own homes, as well as devise strategies to improve patient compliance and help manage chronic diseases. While many people do not want to visit a hospital for care, many have expressed concern that they may not get help in time by ordering a test for their home. In that case, the visit of a mobile unit is viewed as essential by local government agencies.
3.3. Emergency Response and Disaster Relief
Introduction Since mobile laboratories can send results and connect their resources with remote and strategic laboratories, they are useful in various disaster situations. The public expects emergency teams to immediately go to the disaster-stricken area, overcoming blocked routes such as roadways. These teams need to deploy a level of concern assessment of hazardous materials in seconds and evaluate and intervene in asymmetrical damages, including houses, small buildings, and elderly preventive care homes that have been damaged by earthquakes and tsunamis. If automated systems and sensors are attached, the retrieval and removal of children from schools and contaminated citizens in the land of deposition can be done more quickly. Of course, issues related to safety and life-saving strategies are important.
Case of Earthquakes The diesel van laboratory vehicle can quickly react to disasters such as earthquakes. Special roads and areas are set up in urban settings to deliver first responders and emergency medical services, police, and others when systems smaller than hospitals and trauma centers are required. This pre-op staging area enables relief and help functions to be isolated from the rapidly moving general public. Patients and people with injuries and exposure can receive necessary evaluative care and preventive intervention from the rapid transit EMS and non-hospital health and human services using mobile laboratory van medical teams. Volunteers, support, animal, and food and water safety personnel can receive necessary instruction in this area to avoid contamination and access to affected animals and their owners.
4. Key Components and Features of Mobile Laboratories
Mobile laboratories are used for many purposes, such as research and data collection in remote locations. These labs not only need to carry research equipment but also to process the data using attached or carried equipment or instruments, such that structural and other considerations dictate the modular building of such labs. This section provides an overview of the typical components of mobile laboratories needed for researchers, first responders, or others who may want to commission the design of such a vehicle. It also discusses, in a general manner, principles useful to consider when creating a design brief, including whether the lab will operate as a standalone or wearable entity.
Equipment: Mobile water quality testing equipment can be divided into two categories. They are instruments used for water quality analysis and chemicals and reagents used for analysis. Mobile laboratories can incorporate either or both of these categories of equipment. Instrument: The equipment can range from simple test strips that can be used to test offsite in the field. Large trucks or vans can carry many types of water analysis equipment, ranging from simple to complex equipment used at state-certified water testing laboratories. For example: colorimeters, cooling capabilities, membrane filtration, centrifugation, filtration, flame AAs, refrigeration for biological samples, furnace for inorganic samples, ICP-MS for inorganic samples, gas chromatography, flow injection, series analyses, microbalances, turbidimeters, pH meters, conductivity meters, pH buffer solutions, power supply, wastewater, reagent rinse system, low flow peristaltic pumps for wet chemistry, flow cytometers, mounting systems for water analysis equipment, custom data collection software to link equipment and automatically record data/results, HPLC for total organic analysis.
Storages: Truck or van-based labs have specific storage setups for the large and diverse bunch of chemicals and reagents that can be used for testing the water. More chemicals are used when dealing with wastewater. Trucks, buses, and vans: Labs that are built inside vehicles must be firmly attached to the internal structure of the vehicle in order to prevent movement. On small vehicles, all compartments may need to be bolted to structural supports. Some typical interior components are as follows: shelving, bins, cabinets, work surfaces, stove, refrigerator/freezer, sink, countertop. When placing equipment in a vehicle, both electrical and plumbing installations must meet code requirements. Vehicle labs have more stringent regulations due to potential environmental contamination. Vehicle laboratories can be set up as fixed inside a structure, detachable, or as containers. In the case of vehicles, care should be taken to ensure that any additional heat generated by fixed equipment and the operators is removed and does not increase the risk of vehicle overheating. Vehicle laboratories should provide certain comforts to the operator, such as air conditioning or heating for the vented areas, comfortable seating with improved suspension system, hard flooring, cupboards, and drawer spaces for storage and seating capacity of at least two operators with the driver’s adjustment seating. The interior should be space-efficient as per the maximum volume and weight of the vehicle. For laboratories set up as detachable, the vehicle platform that will be used during transportation must be carefully considered to transport the laboratory as per customs regulations applicable for the country or jurisdiction, as well as modified to reduce discomfort, vibration, and shock hazards.
5. Case Studies and Examples of Mobile Laboratories with Trucks or Vans
Neumann, Systems Theory; Rothenhöfer et al., Virtual Laboratories; Schwarz et al., Lab Architecture. For instance, Militký et al. discuss quality management and uncertainty costs in metrological and healthcare laboratories, whereas Tentes et al. focus on direct-to-patient care as a mobile lab application. Further perspectives on the topic cover the implementation of enabling technologies to mobile labs, the use of mobile laboratories for fully automated research investigations, and technological trends which could lead to the fading of stationary laboratories, too. Legislation and administrative obstacles should be considered and discussed in upcoming research.
Within- and out-of-continental emergency response, environmental analysis, healthcare, and governmental operations have made use of mobile laboratories for decades. This chapter explicitly highlights the operation of mobile laboratories on trucks and/or vans to illustrate the current differences throughout fields of application in the following cases. • Case 1: Emergency – Düsseldorf, Germany, 1980 • Case 2: Environmental Monitoring – Finthen, Germany, since 1985; former Yugoslavia, since 2004; Ohard, Iran, 2006; Rhine River, Germany and Ttweiler, the Netherlands, 2013 • Case 3: Radiation Monitoring – Appleby, Great Britain, 1984; Chortex Nuclear Power Plant, Great Britain, 1984 • Case 4: Medical Diagnostics – Los Angeles, USA, n.d.; Clark County, USA, n.d. • Case 5: Governmental Telemedicine and Teaching Health Care – Mauna Kea Observatory, USA, 2004 and 2006 • Case 6: Microbiological Diagnostics – Montréal, Canada, 2010 and 2013. In each case, before a mobile laboratory was made operational, special operational challenges had to be mastered. Some of the case studies will offer alternative solutions settled for practical reasons. Each part is supported by a detailed review of sources next to a report on interviews with researchers shortly after operation.