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Relationships between source, chemistry and health effects
Citation:
GILMOUR, M. I. Relationships between source, chemistry and health effects. Presented at American Associaton of Aerosol Research, San Diego, CA, March 22 - 27, 2010.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation will describe a range ofenvironmental factors in urban air that have been implicated as having had a potential impact on cardiopulmonary function and susceptibility to the development ofatopic allergy and asthma.
Description:
Air pollution has long been associated with detrimental health risks in susceptible populations. Experimental evidence in rodents indicates that inhaled or instilled air pollutants such as diesel exhaust particles, residual oil fly ash or its constitutive metals, and ambient PM from certain locales can cause lung injury, inflammation, and in some cases potentiate allergic airway responses. Although the chemistry ofparticles intuitively must influence particle toxicity in both a quantitative and qualitative manner, materials that are regarded as being "chemically inert" in normal healthy systems are often reported to produce effects in murine experimental disease systems such as allergic asthma and artherosclerosis. Furthermore, particles collected from the same airshed might differentially affect the lung versus the heart depending upon the size and presumably chemistry. This presentation will describe a range ofenvironmental factors in urban air that have been implicated as having had a potential impact on cardiopulmonary function and susceptibility to the development ofatopic allergy and asthma. Included among those considered will be diesel exhaust particles, coal fly ash, and size fractionated ambient air samples from different locations. The relative importance ofsuch factors, and the mechanistic basis for their action, will be discussed. (This abstract does not reflect EPA policy)