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SIMULATED ROADWAY EXPOSURE ATMOSPHERES FOR LABORATORY ANIMAL AND HUMAN STUDIES
Impact/Purpose:
This Project will develop inhalation exposure atmospheres for animal and human laboratory studies, with the primary objective of simulating environments containing key components of roadway emissions and the products of environmental factors that transform them. The exposures will help determine air contaminants that cause or potentiate the toxicity of roadway emissions or confound interpretations based on roadway proximity alone. Our hypotheses are that combined gasoline and diesel motor vehicle emissions toxicity decreases when transformed in the atmosphere. We further hypothesize that background air and nonexhaust roadway emissions (road surface dust, tire and brake wear material, inorganic ions, metals, and ozone) do not contribute significantly to roadway-associated cardiovascular morbidity, nor do they potentiate the morbidity associated with roadway emissions. The animal and human toxicology projects will utilize the experimental exposure atmospheres generated in this project to determine the relative potency of different simulated roadway environments, and thus test hypotheses regarding causal components and combinations. The results of the animal studies will be used to select atmospheres for confirmatory human inhalation studies.
Description:
We will elucidate the important characteristics that define toxicity resulting from roadway emissions and their interaction with background air. We expect that fresh whole exhaust containing ultrafine particles and vapor will confer the most potent atmosphere. These results will be confirmed in both rodent and human studies.