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The Relationship Between Health Effects and Airborne Particulate Constituents

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Clinical Handbook of Air Pollution-Related Diseases

Abstract

This chapter reviews in detail chemical composition, formation processes and reactivity of airborne particulate matter. The relationship between sources and PM is treated both mechanistically and in terms of methodological strategies adopted assess the link between emissions, atmospheric processes and health hazard. The most accredited biochemical pathways leading to adverse health effects are also described.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This carbonaceous fraction spans from bacteria, viruses, pollen and spores, i.e. living organisms which are more than bioactive species and which are always present in PM, down to biological debris from the decomposition of animals and plants and from the human body. As such, the living components may cause infections, diseases and allergies mostly on a seasonal basis, with moulds being most active in indoor environments. Though widely investigated in the field of pathology, they are far less examined than all the other chemical compounds of PM especially in aerosol science even if a holistic approach should correctly suggest major efforts for including also the biological component in the overall evaluation of the real environmental and health effects of PM. For this reason, though the authors are aware of the importance of bioaerosol, they will not provide details on it in the present chapter, while they indicate how this topic is of increasing interest especially as far as indoor environments.

  2. 2.

    It must be pointed out that NOx in the air is subjected to competitive reactions leading not only to SIA and therefore to PM but also to ozone, largely contributing to the overall oxidation chemistry and to the oxidation capacity of the atmosphere.

  3. 3.

    Ammonia is produced by excess reduction of NOx in the three-way vehicle catalysers, and its occurrence/relevance in an urban environment is a function of the traffic level.

  4. 4.

    The hydrological cycle, which includes the return of water evaporated from the oceans to the Earth’s surface through precipitation events meteorologically driven, necessarily relies on the availability of aerosol particles; this means, in brief, that the occurrence of fine and ultrafine PM is firstly a natural driver of cloud formation but also that when PM is affected by atmospheric pollution, cloud processing will consequently affect the physico-chemical properties of hydrometeors.

  5. 5.

    Strictly speaking, elemental carbon and black carbon are not synonyms and are complemented by even further terms, i.e. soot and refractory carbon and more. This is due to the dependency between the carbon-related parameter measured, the experimental/instrumental approach adopted and its structural properties, a series of conditions which have prevented so far from a general consensus on terminology and definitions. For an exhaustive update on the topic we address to [27].

  6. 6.

    N.B. the term “chemodiversity” is a neologism by Laura Tositti, aimed at including all the different chemical species occurring at environmental level and covering elements with their compounds (i.e. chemical speciation in a literal sense by definition contributing to the mass balance of the single element) resulting from natural and anthropic sources and interactions and including also isotopic fractionation. This term should also include the speciation of the carbonaceous fraction, which is typically abundant and highly differentiated.

  7. 7.

    It is to note that the emission of pollutants can be highly minimized when modern mitigation technologies are adopted, especially when compared to old industrial facilities and/or vehicles, etc. Nevertheless, minimization and up-to-date technologies do not mean zero emission; as a result regulations and monitoring are required and must be continuously updated and implemented.

  8. 8.

    European Directives 1999/30/EC and 2004/107/EC relating to lead, arsenic, cadmium and nickel; in Italy D. L. n. 155/2010, which includes also mercury (HG) and BaP previously discussed.

  9. 9.

    Fuzzi et al. [2] estimated from the ISI Web of Science database that the average number of ambient aerosol papers published in refereed journals increased from a few tens per year in the 1980s to the present day 1500–2000 papers per year.

  10. 10.

    ROS includes singlet oxygen (1O2), superoxide radical (O2 −), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), hydroperoxyl (HO2) and hydroxyl radical (·OH).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry “G. Ciamician”, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Laura Tositti

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  1. Laura Tositti
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Correspondence to Laura Tositti .

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  1. Alder Hey Children’s Hospital , Liverpool, United Kingdom

    Fabio Capello

  2. Scientific Director of Health Lab of GTechnology Foundation, Modena, Italy

    Antonio Vittorino Gaddi

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Tositti, L. (2018). The Relationship Between Health Effects and Airborne Particulate Constituents. In: Capello, F., Gaddi, A. (eds) Clinical Handbook of Air Pollution-Related Diseases. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62731-1_3

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