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Ultrafine Particles Exposure and Health
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Ultrafine Particles Exposure and Health

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2019) | Viewed by 17046

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Ulrich Franck

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
Interests: environmental epidemiology; airborne exposure; outdoor and indoor exposure; airborne particles; environmental justice

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In contrast to other airborne pollutants, knowledge about ultrafine and submicron particles is still very limited. This lack exists with regard to both, human exposure and health effects. On the other hand, a number of new publications indicate that such particles may play an important adverse role in health, which is partly independent of other airborne pollutants.

This Special Issue intends to pool new results and new aspects of validated findings in order to give a current overview in this field and to identify knowledge gaps and priorities for mitigation measures. Hence, this issue will include original papers representing new findings, as well as meta-studies and reviews.

Contribution are welcomed on, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Quantification of concentrations in various surroundings and over time
  • Black carbon loading and chemical composition of particles (including internal and external mixtures)
  • Multiple exposure including other airborne pollutants
  • Particle sources and contributions to exposure
  • Resulting human exposures and inhaled doses
  • Impacts on public health and on vulnerable groups within population (short term and long-term exposure)
  • Indoor exposures and its health impact
  • Epidemiological risk assessments and toxicological mode of action studies
  • Possible legal limits for protection of health threshold values for adverse impacts

Dr. Ulrich Franck
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Human exposure
  • Ultrafine particles
  • Airborne pollutants
  • Indoor / outdoor concentrations and sources
  • Health effects
  • Public health
  • Environmental epidemiology
  • Mode of action

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 3912 KiB  
Article
Increased Dementia Mortality in West Virginia Counties with Mountaintop Removal Mining?
by A. K. Salm and Michael J. Benson
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(21), 4278; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16214278 - 04 Nov 2019
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4141
Abstract
Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is elevated in areas of mountaintop removal mining (MTM), a practice that has been ongoing in some counties of West Virginia (WV) USA since the 1970s. PM inhalation has been linked to central nervous system pathophysiology, including cognitive decline [...] Read more.
Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is elevated in areas of mountaintop removal mining (MTM), a practice that has been ongoing in some counties of West Virginia (WV) USA since the 1970s. PM inhalation has been linked to central nervous system pathophysiology, including cognitive decline and dementia. Here we compared county dementia mortality statistics in MTM vs. non-MTM WV counties over a period spanning 2001–2015. We found significantly elevated age-adjusted vascular or unspecified dementia mortality/100,000 population in WV MTM counties where, after adjusting for socioeconomic variables, dementia mortality was 15.60 (±3.14 Standard Error of the Mean (S.E.M.)) times higher than that of non-MTM counties. Further analyses with satellite imaging data revealed a highly significant positive correlation between the number of distinct mining sites vs. both mean and cumulative vascular and unspecified dementia mortality over the 15 year period. This was in contrast to finding only a weak relationship between dementia mortality rates and the overall square kilometers mined. No effect of living in an MTM county was found for the rate of Alzheimer’s type dementia and possible reasons for this are considered. Based on these results, and the current literature, we hypothesize that inhalation of PM associated with MTM contributes to dementia mortality of the vascular or unspecified types. However, limitations inherent in ecological-type studies such as this, preclude definitive extrapolation to individuals in MTM-counties at this time. We hope these findings will inspire follow-up cohort and case-controlled type studies to determine if specific causative factors associated with living near MTM can be identified. Given the need for caregiving and medical support, increased dementia mortality of the magnitude seen here could, unfortunately, place great demands upon MTM county public health resources in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultrafine Particles Exposure and Health)
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18 pages, 2286 KiB  
Article
Exposure to Atmospheric Ultrafine Particles Induces Severe Lung Inflammatory Response and Tissue Remodeling in Mice
by Yara Saleh, Sébastien Antherieu, Romain Dusautoir, Laurent Y. Alleman, Jules Sotty, Corentin De Sousa, Anne Platel, Esperanza Perdrix, Véronique Riffault, Isabelle Fronval, Fabrice Nesslany, Ludivine Canivet, Guillaume Garçon and Jean-Marc Lo-Guidice
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(7), 1210; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16071210 - 04 Apr 2019
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 3467
Abstract
Exposure to particulate matter (PM) is leading to various respiratory health outcomes. Compared to coarse and fine particles, less is known about the effects of chronic exposure to ultrafine particles, despite their higher number and reactivity. In the present study, we performed a [...] Read more.
Exposure to particulate matter (PM) is leading to various respiratory health outcomes. Compared to coarse and fine particles, less is known about the effects of chronic exposure to ultrafine particles, despite their higher number and reactivity. In the present study, we performed a time-course experiment in mice to better analyze the lung impact of atmospheric ultrafine particles, with regard to the effects induced by fine particles collected on the same site. Trace element and PAH analysis demonstrated the almost similar chemical composition of both particle fractions. Mice were exposed intranasally to FF or UFP according to acute (10, 50 or 100 µg of PM) and repeated (10 µg of PM 3 times a week during 1 or 3 months) exposure protocols. More particle-laden macrophages and even greater chronic inflammation were observed in the UFP-exposed mice lungs. Histological analyses revealed that about 50% of lung tissues were damaged in mice exposed to UFP for three months versus only 35% in FF-exposed mice. These injuries were characterized by alveolar wall thickening, macrophage infiltrations, and cystic lesions. Taken together, these results strongly motivate the update of current regulations regarding ambient PM concentrations to include UFP and limit their emission. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultrafine Particles Exposure and Health)
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14 pages, 3526 KiB  
Article
Association between Mortality and Short-Term Exposure to Particles, Ozone and Nitrogen Dioxide in Stockholm, Sweden
by Henrik Olstrup, Christer Johansson, Bertil Forsberg and Christofer Åström
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(6), 1028; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16061028 - 21 Mar 2019
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 4198
Abstract
In this study, the effects on daily mortality in Stockholm associated with short-term exposure to ultrafine particles (measured as number of particles with a diameter larger than 4 nm, PNC4), black carbon (BC) and coarse particles (PM2.5–10) have been [...] Read more.
In this study, the effects on daily mortality in Stockholm associated with short-term exposure to ultrafine particles (measured as number of particles with a diameter larger than 4 nm, PNC4), black carbon (BC) and coarse particles (PM2.5–10) have been compared with the effects from more common traffic-pollution indicators (PM10, PM2.5 and NO2) and O3 during the period 2000–2016. Air pollution exposure was estimated from measurements at a 20 m high building in central Stockholm. The associations between daily mortality lagged up to two days (lag 02) and the different air pollutants were modelled by using Poisson regression. The pollutants with the strongest indications of an independent effect on daily mortality were O3, PM2.5–10 and PM10. In the single-pollutant model, an interquartile range (IQR) increase in O3 was associated with an increase in daily mortality of 2.0% (95% CI: 1.1–3.0) for lag 01 and 1.9% (95% CI: 1.0–2.9) for lag 02. An IQR increase in PM2.5–10 was associated with an increase in daily mortality of 0.8% (95% CI: 0.1–1.5) for lag 01 and 1.1% (95% CI: 0.4–1.8) for lag 02. PM10 was associated with a significant increase only at lag 02, with 0.8% (95% CI: 0.08–1.4) increase in daily mortality associated with an IQR increase in the concentration. NO2 exhibits negative associations with mortality. The significant excess risk associated with O3 remained significant in two-pollutant models after adjustments for PM2.5–10, BC and NO2. The significant excess risk associated with PM2.5–10 remained significant in a two-pollutant model after adjustment for NO2. The significantly negative associations for NO2 remained significant in two-pollutant models after adjustments for PM2.5–10, O3 and BC. A potential reason for these findings, where statistically significant excess risks were found for O3, PM2.5–10 and PM10, but not for NO2, PM2.5, PNC4 and BC, is behavioral factors that lead to misclassification in the exposure. The concentrations of O3 and PM2.5–10 are in general highest during sunny and dry days during the spring, when exposure to outdoor air tend to increase, while the opposite applies to NO2, PNC4 and BC, with the highest concentrations during the short winter days with cold weather, when people are less exposed to outdoor air. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultrafine Particles Exposure and Health)
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14 pages, 2034 KiB  
Article
TMT-Based Quantitative Proteomics Analysis Reveals Airborne PM2.5-Induced Pulmonary Fibrosis
by Shan Liu, Wei Zhang, Fang Zhang, Peter Roepstorff, Fuquan Yang, Zhongbing Lu and Wenjun Ding
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(1), 98; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16010098 - 31 Dec 2018
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 4917
Abstract
Epidemiological and experimental studies have documented that long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) increases the risk of respiratory diseases. However, the details of the underlying mechanism remain unclear. In this study, male C57BL/6 mice were exposed to ambient PM2.5 [...] Read more.
Epidemiological and experimental studies have documented that long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) increases the risk of respiratory diseases. However, the details of the underlying mechanism remain unclear. In this study, male C57BL/6 mice were exposed to ambient PM2.5 (mean daily concentration ~64 µg/m3) for 12 weeks through a “real-world” airborne PM2.5 exposure system. We found that PM2.5 caused severe lung injury in mice as evidenced by histopathological examination. Then, tandem mass tag (TMT) labeling quantitative proteomic technology was performed to analyze protein expression profiling in the lungs from control and PM2.5-exposed mice. A total of 32 proteins were differentially expressed in PM2.5-exposed lungs versus the controls. Among these proteins, 24 and 8 proteins were up- and down-regulated, respectively. Gene ontology analysis indicated that PM2.5 exerts a toxic effect on lungs by affecting multiple biological processes, including oxidoreductase activity, receptor activity, and protein binding. Furthermore, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis revealed that extracellular matrix (ECM)–receptor interaction, phagosome, small cell lung cancer, and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase(PI3K)-protein kinase B (Akt) signaling pathways contribute to PM2.5-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Taken together, these results provide a comprehensive proteomics analysis to further understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying PM2.5-elicited pulmonary disease. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultrafine Particles Exposure and Health)
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