Abstract
ABSTRACTAtmospheric particulate matter (PM) characterizes the atmospheric air quality. PM particles can adsorb and include several toxic air pollutants of urban areas. The current study aimed to develop an experimental procedure to assess the toxicity of the pollutants on PPM10 by means of the comet assay on earthworms directly exposed to PM10 collecting filters. A particular focus was the amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the filter, in spite of their very low concentration in PM, because of their strong mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. A quartz filter exposed to polluted air containing 24.9 mg/g of PM10 and 14.1 μg/g of PAHs was characterized and mechanically reduced into a very fine powder by means of a planetary ball mill. This powder was combined with artificial soil samples allowing treatments at 15 μg/g of PM10 (0.008 μg/g of PAHs), 22.5 μg/g of PM10 (0.012 μg/g of PAHs), 30 μg/g of PM10 (0.016 μg/g of PAHs). Earthworms were exposed to each treatment for seven days, including blank treatments with powdered clean quartz filter, such as phenanthrene (used as the standard), and an untreated soil. DNA damage was observed starting from 0.012 μg/g of PAHs in 22.5 μg/g of PM10. No single PAH was detected or quantified in the bodies of the earthworms after microwave assisted solvent extraction (MASE) and GC-MS analysis. The results demonstrate that even a very low amount of PM10 absorbed by the earthworms had a toxic effect on their immune systems, which could also have been caused by other xenobiotics included into the filter.
Highlights
Monitoring of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is required in order to assess the air quality in urban areas
The results demonstrate that even a very low amount of PM10 absorbed by the earthworms had a toxic effect on their immune systems, which could have been caused by other xenobiotics included into the filter
Comet Assay Tail lengths of coelomocyte nuclei were always significantly more pronounced for earthworms exposed to soils spiked with polluted filters than those observed from exposure to blank filters (FB) and shorter than those measured for the positive control (CTR+) (Figs. 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4)
Summary
Monitoring of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is required in order to assess the air quality in urban areas. PM is a complex mixture of suspended solid and liquid particles with different physical, chemical and toxicological properties which originates from natural and anthropogenic sources (Stone et al, 2011). According to the aerodynamic diameter, particles can be classified as PM10 (< 10 μm diameter) and PM2.5 (< 2.5 μm). Vouitsis et al (2009) collected PM emitted from light-duty vehicles on PTFE-coated fibre filters. Their extract toxicity was determined by means of Microtox® bioassay on the bioluminescence of Vibrio fisheri. The organic contaminants collected in the exposed filters were always Soxhlet extracted and, subsequently, applied in these previously cited bioassays
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