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Disentangling vehicular emission impact on urban air pollution using ethanol as a tracer.

ABSTRACT: The Sao Paulo Metropolitan Area is a unique case worldwide due to the extensive use of biofuel, particularly ethanol, by its large fleet of nearly 8 million cars. Based on source apportionment analysis of Organic Aerosols in downtown Sao Paulo, and using ethanol as tracer of passenger vehicles, we have identified primary emissions from light-duty-vehicles (LDV) and heavy-duty-vehicles (HDV), as well as secondary process component. Each of those factors mirror a relevant primary source or secondary process in this densely occupied area. Using those factors as predictors in a multiple linear regression analysis of a wide range of pollutants, we have quantified the role of primary LDV or HDV emissions, as well as atmospheric secondary processes, on air quality degradation. Results show a significant contribution of HDV emissions, despite contributing only about 5% of vehicles number in the region. The latter is responsible, for example, of 40% and 47% of benzene and black carbon atmospheric concentration, respectively. This work describes an innovative use of biofuel as a tracer of passenger vehicle emissions, allowing to better understand the role of vehicular sources on air quality degradation in one of most populated megacities worldwide.

SUBMITTER: Brito J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6048126 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Disentangling vehicular emission impact on urban air pollution using ethanol as a tracer.

Brito Joel J Carbone Samara S A Monteiro Dos Santos Djacinto D Dominutti Pamela P de Oliveira Alves Nilmara N V Rizzo Luciana L Artaxo Paulo P

Scientific reports 20180716 1

The Sao Paulo Metropolitan Area is a unique case worldwide due to the extensive use of biofuel, particularly ethanol, by its large fleet of nearly 8 million cars. Based on source apportionment analysis of Organic Aerosols in downtown Sao Paulo, and using ethanol as tracer of passenger vehicles, we have identified primary emissions from light-duty-vehicles (LDV) and heavy-duty-vehicles (HDV), as well as secondary process component. Each of those factors mirror a relevant primary source or seconda ...[more]

PMID: 30013098

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Project description:In the present study, we investigate pulmonary transcriptional responses in mice following exposure in situ to ambient air in a heavily polluted urban environment. Mature C57BL/CBA male mice were caged in sheds located in an urban area near two working steel mills and a major highway in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Control mice were housed in the same environment but received only high-efficiency particle-filtered air. Whole lung tissues were collected from mice exposed for 3 weeks, 10 weeks or for 10 weeks followed by 6 weeks in the laboratory (16 weeks total). DNA microarrays were used to explore changes in pulmonary gene expression in mice breathing ambient air versus HEPA-filtered air. Transcriptional profiling revealed changes in the expression of genes implicated in the lipid droplet synthesis pathway (plin, dgat2, lpl, s3-12, agpat2), antioxidants (ucp1). We postulate that exposure to particulate matter adsorbed with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons triggers lipid droplet synthesis (holding depots for lipids and malformed/excess proteins tagged for degradation) in the lungs, which act to sequester particulates adsorbed with toxic chemicals. Increased lipid droplet synthesis could potentially lead to endogenous/stressor-induced synthesis of reactive oxygen species and activation of antioxidant mechanisms. Further investigation into the stimulation of lipid droplet synthesis in the lung in response to air pollution is warranted in order to better understand these mechanistic changes and the resulting health implications. Mature male C57BL/6 x CBA F1 hybrid mice were exposed to either HEPA-filtered or ambient air in Hamilton, ON, Canada. Animals were exposed starting May 14, 2004 for 3 weeks (3wk), 10 weeks (10wk), or for 10 weeks followed by 6 weeks of recovery (16wk). Each treatment group consisted of five mice, for a total of 30 mice. Total RNA was isolated from a random section of the whole lung using TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen) and purified using the RNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen). RNA quality was confirmed by UV spectrophotometry and using an Agilent Bioanalyzer. Total RNA (200 ng) from HEPA-filtered air or whole air-exposed mice and Universal Mouse Reference RNA (Stratagene) were used to synthesize double-stranded cDNA and cyanine-labelled cRNA according to the manufacturer's instructions (Agilent Linear Amplification Kits, Agilent Technologies). Biological samples were labelled with Cy5 dye while the commercially available Stratagene mouse reference RNA was labelled with Cy3 dye. At each of the three time points, ambient air-exposed samples and HEPA-filtered samples were hybridized to Agilent microarrays. Arrays were washed, and scanned on an Agilent G2505B scanner. Data were acquired using the Agilent Feature Extraction software version 9.5.3.1.

Dataset Information

Disentangling vehicular emission impact on urban air pollution using ethanol as a tracer.

Publications

Disentangling vehicular emission impact on urban air pollution using ethanol as a tracer.

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