Organism's responses to a long-term inhalation of silica-containing submicron particles of an industrial aerosol

Marina Sutunkova,Svetlana Solovyeva,Boris Katsnelson,Vladimir Gurvich,Larisa Privalova,Ilzira Minigalieva,Lyudmila Konysheva,Tatiana Slyshkina,Irina Valamina,Vladimir Shur,Ilya Zubarev,Denis Kuznnetsov

doi:10.1016/j.toxlet.2017.08.052

Abstract

In this study we seek to understand the relation between travel information, transit use intentions and night travel. We hypothesize that transit use is related to the perceived usefulness and the ease-of-use of the system, which are related to information quality and real-time information availability. The hypothesized relations are anchored theoretically in the Technology Acceptance Model and validated empirically in two case-studies: (i) Copenhagen (Denmark), characterized by a highly integrated transit system with an advanced web-based information system; (ii) Recife and Natal (Brazil), characterized by a lower perceived level-of-service and non-integrated information sources. Data from a tailor-made survey of 1123 university students were collected. Structural equation models were employed for explaining the use of transit as a function of the observed respondent characteristics and the latent constructs. The results show that: (i) information search quality and source explain transit use; (ii) information quality underlies level-of-service and familiarity; (iii) the use of real-time information links to information quality and familiarity; (iv) general transit use and non-routine use during night and to unfamiliar places are correlated; and (v) the behavioral framework is confirmed with the two case-studies.

Highlights

While engineered SiO2 nanoparticle toxicity is being widely investigated, mostly on cell lines or in acute animal experiments [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9], and a lot of others, the practical importance of industrial condensation aerosols with a high SiO2 particle content and the theoretical interest in it seems to be neglected
In an auxiliary experiment with a single-shot intratracheal instillation of these particles, it was shown that they induced a pulmonary cell response comparable with that to highly cytotoxic and fibrogenic standard quartz powder DQ12
We carried out an experiment to study the response of the lower airways free cells obtained from rats exposed, 24 h before bronchoalveolar lavage, to a single-shot intratracheal instillation of the same particles suspended in normal saline in comparison with the response to the highly cytotoxic and fibrogenic standard quartz dust DQ12

Summary

Introduction

While engineered SiO2 nanoparticle toxicity is being widely investigated, mostly on cell lines or in acute animal experiments [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9], and a lot of others, the practical importance of industrial condensation aerosols with a high SiO2 particle content and the theoretical interest in it seems to be neglected. Female white rats were exposed during up to 6 months 5 times a week, 4 hr per day in a “nose only” inhalation device to an aerosol containing predominantly submicron (nanoscale included) particles of amorphous silica in the concentration 2.6±0.6 or 10.6±2.1 mg/m3.

Results

Conclusion