| UC Toxics News: Spring 2006
Tony Wexler, associate director of the new TSR&TP lead campus program in Atmospheric Aerosols and Health based at UC Davis, talked about the link between particles and health effects. “We don’t know what it is about particles that are causing health problems and we don’t know what the health effects are either,” explained Wexler. His research group at UC Davis received a US EPA center grant in 2005 to study the problem. Wexler and his colleagues are collecting particles in the San Joaquin Valley and analyzing them for chemical composition and number. The group also has a lab set up to imitate what’s going on in the field. On the health effects side, they are studying the metabolic response of pulmonary and cardiovascular cells to particles. They’re also looking at a toxicological response. The EPA center is working with other centers around the country to determine where else these particles may going in the body that can cause health effects. “Airborne carbon particles migrate through the nose into the brain. There are various studies showing that children are more susceptible to airborne particles because lungs are developing until 16 years old. There’s evidence that lungs don’t develop properly when exposed to ozone and particles,” said Wexler. Wexler’s research group has developed a model of airway tunneling on his website that can be run in a browser http://mae.ucdavis.edu/wexler/lungs/bifurc-geom/. |
