Ro. Salonen et al., A chemical and toxicological comparison of urban air PM10 collected duringwinter and spring in Finland, INHAL TOXIC, 12, 2000, pp. 95-103
We have used a new high-volume, low-cutoff inertial impactor (HVLI) in a pi
lot study on chemical characterization and toxicity testing of ambient air
PM10 in Helsinki, Finland. Ambient air PM10 was collected at 1100 L/min in
2- to 4-day periods. Two different PM10 samples were selected to represent
wintertime combustion type and springtime resuspension type particulate mat
ter (PM) pollution. The most abundant water-soluble ions and elements were
analyzed by ion chromatography and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrom
etry, respectively. The proinflammatory activation [NO and interleukin 6 (I
L-6) production] and viability of cultured murine RAW 264.7 macrophages wer
e tested in 24-h incubations with increasing mass doses (30-2000 mu g per 1
0(6) cells) from the collected PM10 samples. The winter sample had a higher
assessed PM2.5 fraction and sulfate content, and lower chloride, sodium, c
alcium, aluminum, copper, manganese, and especially iron contents than the
spring sample. Both PM10 samples induced dose-dependent NO production in mu
rine macrophages, and the springtime PM10 produced also a strong, dose-depe
ndent IL-6 production. In conclusion, the HVLI proved to be a suitable tech
nique for short-term collection of relatively large ambient air PM masses,
enabling extensive chemical characterization and toxicity testing from the
same samples.