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Development a New Health Metric for Ambient Fine Particles Based on Differential Toxicities among Different Sources
MINHAN PARK, Kihong Park, Gwangju Insitute of Science and Technology
Abstract Number: 346
Working Group: Health-Related Aerosols
Abstract
Fine particulate matters less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) in the ambient atmosphere are related with adverse health effects such as mortality and cardiovascular, respiratory, and allergic disease. A number of studies reported that the toxicity of fine particles differs depending on their sources due to different sizes and chemical components, suggesting that PM2.5 mass concentration (µg/m3) which is a current regulation standard should not be sufficient for monitoring health effects of PM2.5. A new health metric was derived here based on the differential toxicities among different sources of fine particles including exposure levels of PM2.5. The differential toxicity scores for fine particles from various sources (diesel and gasoline engines, biomass burning, coal burning, road dust, secondary organic aerosols, ammonium sulfate, and ammonium nitrate) were determined by using results obtained from in-vitro toxicity data (oxidative potential, cell viability, mutagenicity, DNA damage, oxidative stress, and inflammation) (Park et al., 2018). The new metric (risk score) was applied to local and regional mortality data (all-cause, COPD, lung cancer, asthma, and respiratory disease) for estimating association between new metric and health. The association was also compared with an association between ambient PM2.5 mass concentration levels and health. The new health metric can be potentially served as a useful indicator to estimate the adverse health effects caused by different fine particle types although it should be continuously improved, and provide practical management of PM2.5 beyond what can be achieved using PM2.5 mass only. More results will be discussed in this presentation.