John M. Veranth, Research Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Utah
Numerous studies have reported adverse health effects correlated with increased inhaled particulate matter, but the toxicological mechanisms by which specific types of particles affect susceptible populations remain elusive.
Particulate air pollution epidemiology, current air quality regulations, and the mechanistic toxicological hypotheses that attempt to link specific particles with responses by sensitive individuals will be reviewed as an introduction to a ubiquitous pollutant - vehicle-generated dust from roads.
The sources and transport of dust must be accurately modeled to allow predicting population exposures and to validate air quality management plans. Field studies, wind tunnel experiments, and computational models have been used to better understand fugitive dust emissions and transport. The field studies provided a large collection of chemically characterized soil dusts from a range of sites that have been used in toxicology studies that use cultured lung cells. Certain soil dusts induced surprisingly strong pro-inflammatory responses. Surface-modifying treatments including heat and leaching and statistical correlation analysis are being used to identify the particle components or characteristics that induce the cell signaling response.
This ongoing work is supported by NIEHS K25 ES011281, Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy EH-03-03, and by the US EPA Science To Achieve Results (STAR) research program.
John Veranth is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and has an adjunt appointment in the Department of Chemical Engineering. He received his BS Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971 and a MS from MIT in 1974. He spent 25 years in the electric power generation, metallurgical, and hazardous waste industries, then received his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Utah in 1998. His research interests are centered on the health effects of particulate air pollution and involve interdisciplinary collaborations involving combustion, aerosol science, biochemistry, and toxicology.