DARTMOUTH COL COBRE: P4: RESPIRATORY EFFECTS OF AIRBORNE PARTICULATE MATTER

这个子项目是众多研究子项目之一

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Environmental exposure to airborne particle matter has been implicated in the dramatic increase in clinically significant asthma and respiratory distress. A number of on-going monitoring studies have demonstrated variability in ambient and indoor concentrations and composition of particulate matter in urban and rural areas of the Northeast region. This project will address this need by investigating the specific hypothesis that exposure to airborne particles collected at urban, rural and anthropogenic source specific monitoring sites in the northeast region contain unique composition, which produce distinct pathological protein profiles in lung epithelium. This differential ability to affect lung biology promotes disproportionate respiratory health impacts in the State of New Hampshire and across the northeast region. This work will provide qualitative and quantitative evidence to assist policy-makers as they attempt to determine whether existing standards are adequately protective for disproportionately affected populations, particularly for those individuals exposed to combustion products from heavy duty diesel equipment operations. The United States Environmental Protection Agency, in support of recent on road and nonroad diesel engine emission standards, concluded that petroleum diesel engines produce between 4-53% of the total ambient fine particulate matter concentrations in the United States. Our focus is to characterize the exposure variability and particulate matter composition in emissions generated by petroleum diesel and biodiesel fuels. Many organizations interested in a renewable and domestic source of energy have switched from petroleum diesel to biodiesel blends for transportation and heavy-duty equipment use. While there is a considerable body of evidence on the negative health effects of petroleum diesel exhaust exposures in occupational settings, there has been little research examining the effects switching to biodiesel may have on worker health and the local environment. This project will employ a combination of established industrial hygiene and environmental air monitoring methods to estimate petroleum diesel and biodiesel occupational exposure profiles as well as the facility's relative contribution to local ambient air pollution. With increasing public health concern regarding petroleum diesel emissions, and limited regulatory initiatives to control occupational exposures, more research is necessary to examine biodiesel's potential as a substitute fuel that may reduce risk to both worker health and the environment.