Earth Materials and Health Research Priorities for Earth Science and Public Health (2007) / Chapter Skim
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Section II-Exposure Pathways, 3: What We Breathe
Section II-Exposure Pathways, 3: What We Breathe
Pages 41-62
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Section II Exposure Pathways
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. This chapter focuses on both direct health effects, such as the inhalation of suspended particulate matter (rock and soil particles)
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At many mining sites, for example, this has led to several-fold increases of earth-sourced airborne particulate matter and increased human exposure to potentially hazardous materials. In such environments, ground-based ambient air sample data combined with spatially located health data can demonstrate the impacts of such exposure.
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The hundreds of millions of tons of soil particles in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) can impact sensitive habitats (e.g., coral reefs 1See http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/pm/s_pm_index.html.
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Midwest and Southwest, combined with a long period of drought, decreased soil moisture sufficiently to allow winds to generate thick clouds of dust and cause the famous dustbowl. Other natural sources of airborne particulate matter include dune fields and volcanic ash (e.g., ash from the 1980 Mount St.
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. the distribution of bedrock and soil types provide a scientific basis for predicting risk arising from airborne natural particles.
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48 EARTH MATERIALS AND HEALTH BOX 3.2 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter The EPA has defined two size categories as relevant for estimation of particulate air pollution: PM10, particulate matter with diameters less than or equal to 10 µm and PM2.5, particulate matter with diameters less than or equal to 2.5 µm (see EPA, 2006a)
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in some cultures (see Chapter 5) , the committee knows of no records of cultures "sniffing" earth materials for any purpose.
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Helens eruption of May 18, 1980, not only illustrated the dramatic power of volcanoes but also the health impacts of volcanogenic particulate matter (see Figure 3.4)
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51 WHAT WE BREATHE FIGURE 3.4 Satellite imagery showing the spread of sulfur dioxide following the eruption of Mount St. Helens (marked with black triangle)
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Specific mineral identification is essential for determining potentially hazardous exposure (Skinner et al., 1988, Wilson and Spengler, 1996)
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53 WHAT WE BREATHE tion may occur also smoke, and respiratory trauma from accumulated insults from different sources increases the risks of contracting disease, especially cancers. Another deadly disease linked to asbestos is mesothelioma, a cancer of the pleura rather than the lung tissues.
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. The abundance of serpentinite, and the possi bility that the rock may contain asbestos, has prompted concern regarding potential health hazards.
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Silicosis was identified as a major health concern in the 1930s, but few new cases have appeared in recent years because of increased attention to hazardous workplace environments. The identification of silica in volcanic emissions has caused some recent concern (Horwell et al., 2003)
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. Most of these gases occur in the soil zone or in saturated sediments, and soil type, water content, mineralogy, and organic carbon content all directly influence the dominant microbial community and therefore the type of gas produced.
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57 WHAT WE BREATHE FIGURE 3.5 Distribution of the effects of CO2 generated by contact heating of limestone-rich rocks by a magmatic intrusion at Mammoth Mountain, California.
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. The health effects posed by the outgassing of biogenic or volcanogenic hydrogen sulfide in residential showers is an area of active research and a topic that is an example of research that requires both earth science (to characterize the source of H2S)
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. However, for soil particles to be aerosolized, the particles need to be fairly dry, and low soil moisture contents are known to promote microbial inactivation (Straub et al., 1992; Zaleski et al., 2005)
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identified a risk of infection to residents living close to land application sites from bioaerosols, analysis of the annual community risk of infection from Coxsackie virus A21 using the one-hit exponential model (Brooks et al., 2005a, 2005b) indicated that community risks from bioaerosols generated during land application of
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. Aeroallergens may also contribute to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cardiovascular disease (Brunekreef et al., 2000)
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Collaborative research by earth and public health scientists will be required to effectively address a range of important issues associated with airborne mixtures of pathogens and chemical irritants: • Exposure concentrations and dose response arising from particulate matter/microbe/chemical interactions. • Dose response of soil microbes and pollen.
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