Health and Environmental Effects Research

Animal Inhalation Exposure Facility

EPA's High Bay Facility
in Research Triangle Park, NC

ETD's Animal Inhalation Exposure Facility (AIEF) occupies the 5th floor, lake side, of Building A of the EPA Campus, and also operates a satellite combustion exposure facility in Building H High Bay, in collaboration with engineers from the National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL). The purpose of this core group is to develop and operate inhalation and in vitro exposure systems for air pollution research (gases, vapors, particles, microbials, combustion atmospheres, and complex mixtures), and characterize chemical constituents of gas and particulate matter (PM) in exposure samples (e.g., filters) and tissues. In addition to engineers, the team maintains an analytical chemistry capability which conducts in-house elemental analysis by ICP-MS/AES while other chemistry needs can be met with outside contracts and agreements.

Core Gas Uptake Facility

The Core Gas Uptake Facility is used to estimate rates for metabolism of volatile organic chemicals in laboratory animals. These rates of metabolism are critical inputs to physiologically-based toxicokinetic models. These models are used for animal-to-human extrapolation and risk assessment.

Air Particle Concentrator

The air particle concentrator is an apparatus that draws outside air through carefully designed passageways in a manner that causes the particles in the air to be concentrated into a smaller air stream while the rest of the air is released. Animals or cells can then be exposed to the concentrated air particles (often referred to as CAPs), and estimates of the toxicity of the particles obtained. The particle concentrator was first developed at Harvard University. It is located on the 5th floor of Building A in the RTP Campus. We plan to expose mice that are genetically prone to atherosclerosis to the CAPs, starting fall of 2007.