SusChEM:Collab.Research:RUI:Linking the Geochemical Composition of Airborne Particulate Matter with Arsenic Bioaccessibility and Bioavailability in Contaminated Mining Environments

该项目对增进对影响砷潜在毒性的主要地球化学变量的了解具有重要意义。砷是一种致癌物质，在整个加州和其他地方的金矿废料中含量较高。人类通过吸入途径接触细粒含砷矿山废物是一种潜在的重大接触途径，但人们对此知之甚少。此外，随着土地利用活动的增加和气候变化，空中运输过程和空中矿物粉尘带来的风险可能会随着时间的推移而变得更加重要，这可能导致这些尾矿所在的更大、更干燥、更热和更多风的(半)干旱地区。对尾矿进行仔细的物理和化学表征、体外模拟吸入研究和体内生物利用度研究，可以极大地提高预测可吸入空气颗粒物中砷的潜在毒性的能力。结果将传播给受矿场影响的相关利益攸关方，还可能直接导致在砷污染引起环境关切的地区制定补救战略。该项目还将包括对本科生进行独立和跨学科研究的培训。该项目对于了解如何更安全地开采其他元素具有额外的潜在影响，鉴于计算机和手机等关键技术对元素(例如稀土和贵金属)的需求，这些元素具有全球重要性。了解地雷产生的粉尘与动物模型之间的潜在相互作用，可为更安全地采集地球资源提供知识基础。鉴于这一维度，该项目得到了美国国家科学基金会可持续化学、材料和工程倡议的部分支持。研究人员提出了一种系统的、综合的、多学科的方法来确定莫哈韦沙漠中北部受污染的采矿环境中产生的空气颗粒物的颗粒尺寸与物理和地球化学性质之间的关系。预计这些关系将提高预测空气中砷的生物有效性的能力，并为制定有效的补救战略以控制这些矿场的金属(Loid)通量和暴露提供可靠的科学基础。这一方法结合了对空气中颗粒物的物理和化学性质的宏观分析、基于同步加速器的光谱研究、模拟生物可获得性提取试验和动物暴露实验。这种知识是适用的，并有望转移到其他受环境污染的地区，在这些地区，细粒粉尘及其相关污染物有可能被动员和吸入，从而增加对居民/游客的接触。

This project has implications for increasing understanding of the primary geochemical variables influencing the potential toxicity of arsenic, a carcinogen, which exists in elevated levels in gold mine wastes throughout California and elsewhere. Human exposure to fine-grained arsenic-bearing mine wastes through the inhalation pathway is a potentially significant exposure route about which little is known. Furthermore, airborne transport processes and risks posed by airborne mineral dusts are likely to grow in importance over time with increased land-use activity and climate change, which could result in larger, drier, hotter, and windier (semi-)arid regions where such mine tailings are located. Careful physical and chemical characterization of the tailings, in vitro simulated inhalation studies, and in vivo bioavailability studies could greatly improve the ability to predict the toxicity potential of arsenic in respirable airborne particles. Results will be disseminated to relevant stakeholders impacted by the mine sites and may also lead directly to the development of remediation strategies in areas where arsenic contamination is cause for environmental concern. This project will also entail the training of undergraduate students in independent and interdisciplinary research. This project has additional potential implications for understanding how to more safely mine other elements, which is of global importance given the demand for elements (e.g. rare earths and precious metals) for critical technologies such as computers and cell phones. Understanding the potential interaction of mine-produced dusts with animal models could provide a foundation of knowledge upon which to base practices for safer harvesting of earth resources. Given this dimension, this project is being partially supported by the NSF Sustainable Chemistry, Materials and Engineering initiative.The investigators propose a systematic, integrated, multidisciplinary approach to determine the relationships between particle size and the physical and geochemical properties of airborne particulate matter generated in contaminated mining environments in the north-central Mojave Desert. It is expected that these relationships will improve the ability to predict the bioavailability of arsenic in the airborne size fraction and to provide a sound scientific basis for the development of effective remediation strategies to control metal(loid) fluxes and exposures from these mine sites. This approach utilizes a combination of macroscopic analyses of both physical and chemical properties of airborne particulate matter, synchrotron-based spectroscopic studies, simulated bioaccessibility extraction tests, and animal exposure experiments. Such knowledge is applicable and expected to be transferable to other environmentally-contaminated regions where fine-grained dusts and their associated contaminants have the potential to be mobilized and inhaled, increasing exposure to residents/visitors.