Issue 10, 2023

Source apportionment of oxidative potential depends on the choice of the assay: insights into 5 protocols comparison and implications for mitigation measures

Abstract

The oxidative potential (OP) of particulate matter (PM) has recently been considered as a viable health-based metric of PM exposure. Several acellular assays have been developed to assess OP, but there is no clear consensus in the methodology or protocols used that allows inter-comparison between studies. This research investigates five different acellular OP assays and their sensitivities with the chemical composition of atmospheric particulate matter (PM10) and its emission sources. We revisited and evaluated PM10 samples collected over one year in the urban Alpine city of Grenoble, France. The OP of PM10 was assessed by integrating assays commonly found in the literature, such as ascorbic acid (AA), dithiothreitol (DTT) and 2,7-dichlorofluorescein (DCFH) but also adding novel and less explored assays such as Ferric-Xylenol Orange (FOX), and a direct ROS-quantification through ˙OH. Detailed source apportionment of PM using positive matrix factorisation (PMF) previously performed was coupled with multiple linear regression (MLR) models to determine the OP contribution of PM10 sources. The results highlight the importance of seasonality in the mass contributions of each source and its corresponding influence on OP. These seasonal differences helped to identify the specific reactivity for each studied OP assay. In winter, a good agreement was found between all the OP assays with anthropogenic sources. However, during warmer months, with a reduction in the share of anthropogenic emissions, a higher impact from biogenic and secondary organic-related aerosols has been found. Our results also show a dissimilar sensitivity of each OP to the PM10 sources, likely associated with the chemical composition and chemical processes involved. Thus, our findings show the importance of combining various OP assays to capture different sensitivities to redox-active species to get a clearer picture of the intrinsic capacity of PM sources to cause damaging oxidative reactions in the lung. Providing the heterogeneity of sources obtained with the different OP assays for a given ambient PM exposure, the choice of a single or a combination of OP method(s) must be rationally evaluated as part of the assessment strategy. Such a choice would offer valuable source-related information as a powerful tool to better understand the nature and the intensity of air pollution and envisage the targeted sources for future mitigation policies.

Graphical abstract: Source apportionment of oxidative potential depends on the choice of the assay: insights into 5 protocols comparison and implications for mitigation measures

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 Jan 2023
Accepted
16 Aug 2023
First published
21 Aug 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Environ. Sci.: Atmos., 2023,3, 1497-1512

Source apportionment of oxidative potential depends on the choice of the assay: insights into 5 protocols comparison and implications for mitigation measures

P. A. Dominutti, L. J. S. Borlaza, J. Sauvain, V. D. Ngoc Thuy, S. Houdier, G. Suarez, J. Jaffrezo, S. Tobin, C. Trébuchon, S. Socquet, E. Moussu, G. Mary and G. Uzu, Environ. Sci.: Atmos., 2023, 3, 1497 DOI: 10.1039/D3EA00007A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements