In the first test of its kind, hundreds of people around Australia will wear a monitor the size of a fountain pen to measure air pollution.
While overall air pollution levels have been monitored for years, the amount endured by individuals as they go about their normal lives has never before been studied.
Preliminary results from some early tests suggest that activities which put people particularly at risk include venturing into underground car parks, using drive-through fast-food restaurants where car engines are left running, jogging along busy streets and sitting near wood-burning heaters.
The plastic pollution monitors will be clipped to the clothes of volunteers aged from 16 to 65 in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide.
As well as representing a range of ages, the volunteers were chosen for differing lifestyles: from smokers and non-smokers, to office workers and those who spend most of their working life outdoors, such as farmers and nurserymen.
The tube-shaped monitors absorb chemicals over a five-day period and will then be sent for analysis to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Canberra.
They will gauge exposure to a nasty cocktail of toxins commonly found in the air, including benzene, toluene and xylene, which at high levels can cause headaches, dizziness and even leukaemia.
