Airborne Particulate Matter and Human Health: Toxicological Assessment and Importance of Size and Composition of Particles for Oxidative Damage and Carcinogenic Mechanisms

作者：Athanasios Valavanidis, Konstantinos Fiotakis, Thomais Vlachogianni · 发表于：Journal of Environmental Science and Health Part C · 年份：2008 · DOI：10.1080/10590500802494538 · 被引用次数：1513 · 研究领域：Air Quality and Health Impacts、Climate Change and Health Impacts、Energy and Environment Impacts

Air pollution has been considered a hazard to human health. In the past decades, many studies highlighted the role of ambient airborne particulate matter (PM) as an important environmental pollutant for many different cardiopulmonary diseases and lung cancer. Numerous epidemiological studies in the past 30 years found a strong exposure-response relationship between PM for short-term effects (premature mortality, hospital admissions) and long-term or cumulative health effects (morbidity, lung cancer, cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary diseases, etc). Current research on airborne particle-induced health effects investigates the critical characteristics of particulate matter that determine their biological effects. Several independent groups of investigators have shown that the size of the airborne particles and their surface area determine the potential to elicit inflammatory injury, oxidative damage, and other biological effects. These effects are stronger for fine and ultrafine particles because they can penetrate deeper into the airways of the respiratory tract and can reach the alveoli in which 50% are retained in the lung parenchyma. Composition of the PM varies greatly and depends on many factors. The major components of PM are transition metals, ions (sulfate, nitrate), organic compound, quinoid stable radicals of carbonaceous material, minerals, reactive gases, and materials of biologic origin. Results from toxicological research have shown that PM have several mechanis...