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Mette Sørensen,¹ Bahram Daneshvar,² Max Hansen,² Lars O. Dragsted,² Ole Hertel,³ Lisbeth Knudsen,¹ and Steffen Loft¹

¹Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; ²Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition, Søborg, Denmark; ³National Environmental Research Institute, Roskilde, Denmark

Abstract

Ambient particulate air pollution assessed as outdoor concentrations of particulate matter 2.5 µm in diameter (PM_2.5) in urban background has been associated with cardiovascular diseases at the population level. However, the significance of individual exposure and the involved mechanisms remain uncertain. We measured personal PM_2.5 and carbon black exposure in 50 students four times in 1 year and analyzed blood samples for markers of protein and lipid oxidation, for red blood cell (RBC) and platelet counts, and for concentrations of hemoglobin and fibrinogen. We analyzed protein oxidation in terms of -glutamyl semialdehyde in hemoglobin (HBGGS) and 2-aminoadipic semialdehyde in hemoglobin (HBAAS) and plasma proteins (PLAAS) , and lipid peroxidation was measured as malondialdehyde (MDA) in plasma. Median exposures were 16.1 µg/m³ for personal PM_2.5 exposure, 9.2 µg/m³ for background PM_2.5 concentration, and 8.1 10^-6/m for personal carbon black exposure. Personal carbon black exposure and PLAAS concentration were positively associated (p < 0.01) , whereas an association between personal PM_2.5 exposure and PLAAS was only of borderline significance (p = 0.061) . A 3.7% increase in MDA concentrations per 10 µg/m³ increase in personal PM_2.5 exposure was found for women (p < 0.05) , whereas there was no significant relationship for the men. Similarly, positive associations between personal PM_2.5 exposure and both RBC and hemoglobin concentrations were found only in women (p < 0.01) . There were no significant relationships between background PM_2.5 concentration and any of the biomarkers. This suggests that exposure to particles in moderate concentrations can induce oxidative stress and increase RBCs in peripheral blood. Personal exposure appears more closely related to these biomarkers potentially related to cardiovascular disease than is ambient PM_2.5 background concentrations. Key words: carbon black, fibrinogen, hemoglobin, lipid peroxidation, particulate matter, platelets, protein oxidation, red blood cells. Environ Health Perspect 111:161-165 (2003) . doi:10.1289/ehp.5646 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 31 October 2002]