Particulate Matter

This report investigates methods with the high sensitivity and low limits of detection needed to analyze a wide range of chemical species in particulate matter collected with personal samplers. Dr. Schauer and colleagues developed sensitive methods to detect trace metals, nonpolar organic compounds, and polar organic compounds in personal samples collected in exposure studies. Methods used in this study are of interest to researchers seeking to gain greater insight into the relationships between the components of inhalable particulates and their health effects.

This report describes a unique collaboration among investigators from Europe, the United States, and Canada using existing data from three geographic areas and supported by HEI in collaboration with the European Commission. APHENA offered a large and diverse data set with which to address methodological as well as scientific issues about the relationships between PM₁₀, ozone, and mortality and morbidity that were the subject of lively debates at the time the project was launched. 

This report describes a study to explore novel electrocardiogram (ECG) parameters to improve our understanding of how air pollution may affect cardiovascular health. Drs. Robert Lux and Arden Pope used ECGs obtained in a previous study by Dr. Pope that found a decrease in heart rate variability associated with increased levels of particulate matter, and analyzed them for changes in novel parameters of another important potential change - ventricular repolarization.

Research Report 138, Health Effects of Real-World Exposure to Diesel Exhaust in Persons with Asthma, is one part of HEI's larger program on the role of particles in exacerbating asthma and other allergic diseases. This report describes a study to evaluate how inhaling air with a high concentration of diesel exhaust from vehicular traffic while walking on a busy street in Central London might affect people who had either mild or moderate asthma. Dr.

Research Report 135 describes a study to determine whether the biologic response to inhaled ultrafine particles depends on particle composition. Neonatal and young adult rats were exposed to laboratory-generated ultrafine metal particles, either alone or in combination with soot, and their lungs examined for oxidative stress, inflammation, and injury.

Research Report 134 describes a study that evaluated whether there was an association between particles detectable in the airways of healthy children and a) estimates of local, traffic-derived PM₁₀ at the children's home addresses or b) their lung function. Dr. Jonathan Grigg and colleagues recruited 116 healthy children aged 8 to 15 years who lived in Leicester, UK. In addition to modeling each child's exposure, the investigators measured lung function and evaluated induced sputum for particles in airway macrophages and markers of inflammation.