Toxicity of Source-Oriented
Ambient Submicron Particulate Matter

This page updated January 16, 2013

ARB Research Seminar

Tuesday, February 19, 2013
1:30 pm, PST
Sierra Hearing Room, Second Floor
1001 "I" Street, Sacramento

This event is being Webcast, click here to view
Webcast viewers: Please send your questions during broadcast to: sierrarm@calepa.ca.gov
Presentation will be available at this link:

Anthony S. Wexler, Ph.D.
Civil and Environmental Engineering and
Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources
and
Director, Air Quality Research Center and Crocker Nuclear Laboratory
University of California, Davis

Kent Pinkerton, Ph.D.
Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine
University of California, Davis

Keith Bein, Ph.D.
Air Quality Research Center and Crocker Nuclear Laboratory
University of California, Davis

Evidence from the scientific literature has shown that exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) can be associated with premature death and hospitalization.  However, it is unclear which components are the most responsible for the adverse health effects, since ambient PM is mixture of components derived from a wide range of sources and from atmospheric processes that may alter toxicity. The main goal of this study was to examine toxicity characteristics of PM or PM components derived from different source categories and atmospheric processes. PM samples were collected and concentrated based on source- and atmospheric process-related chemical compositions during two seasons (winter and summer) and at two size points (ultrafine and submicron fine). Mice were then exposed to the isolated PM samples and studied for possible toxicity. The results showed that among summer PM samples those containing metals or originating from local vehicular emissions had the higher biological responses.  Among the winter samples, highly processed regional background PM, PM from nighttime inversions, or  PM from local vehicular emissions had  higher biological responses.  In addition, ultrafine PM was found to have higher biological responses than submicron fine PM on a per mass basis.

This study was funded jointly by the Air Resources Board and the Electric Power Research Institute.

Anthony Wexler, Ph.D., is a Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Land, Air and Water Resources. Dr. Wexler is also the Director of the Air Quality Research Center and Crocker Nuclear Laboratory. He is the former president of the American Association for Aerosol Research was the Director of USEPA’s San Joaquin Valley Aerosol Health Effects Research Center (SAHERC). He currently on editorial board of Atmospheric Environment.

Kent Pinkerton, Ph.D., is a Professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Professor of Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Pinkerton is Director of the Center for Health and the Environment and Co-Director of the Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety at UC Davis.  Dr. Pinkerton was the co-director of the SAHERC at UC Davis and served as Chair of the Environmental and Occupational Health Assembly and Chair of the Environmental Health Policy Committee for the American Thoracic Society.  Professor Pinkerton currently serves on the editorial board of Inhalation Toxicology.

Keith Bein, Ph.D., is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Air Quality Research Center and Crocker Nuclear Laboratory and a member of the Research Faculty at the Center for Health and the Environment at the University of California, Davis.

For information on this Seminar please contact:
Pat Wong, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., at (916) 323-1505 or send email to: pwong@arb.ca.gov

For information on this Series please contact:
Peter Mathews at (916) 323-8711 or send email to: pmathews@arb.ca.gov

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for the seminars please check this page

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