Underground Railway Particulate Matter and Susceptibility to Pneumococcal Infection

Miyashita, Lisa; Shears, Rebecca K.; Foley, Gary; Semple, Sean; Kadioglu, Aras; Grigg, Jonathan

doi:10.2139/ssrn.4019321

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Previous toxicology studies done in the Stockholm subway (Fe-rich microenvironment) did not see an increased risk of myocardial infarction in subway drivers compared to other manual workers in Stockholm 8 . However, a recent in vitro study by 9 using PM from the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines of Baker Street station in the LU did nd evidence of increased risk of pneumococcal infection and mortality. Another in vitro study of PM 10 from the Stockholm subway also found that the air was 40-80 times more genotoxic and 20-40 more potent at causing oxidative stress when compared with an urban street environment 10 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

London Underground air pollution particles are finer than you think

Sheikh

Tung

Ringe

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Particulate matter (PM) concentration levels in the London Underground (LU) are higher than London background levels, and beyond World Health Organization defined limits. Wheel, track, and brake abrasion are the primary sources of particulate matter, producing predominantly Fe-rich particles that make the LU microenvironment particularly well suited to study using environmental magnetism. Here we combine magnetic properties, high-resolution electron microscopy, and electron tomography to characterize the structure, chemistry, and morphometric properties of LU particles in three dimensions with nanoscale resolution. Our findings show that LU PM is dominated by 5-500 nm particles of oxidized magnetite, occurring as 0.1-2 µm aggregated clusters, skewing the size-fractioned concentration of PM artificially to larger sizes when measured with traditional monitors. Magnetic properties are largely independent of the PM filter size (PM10, PM4, and PM2.5), and demonstrate the presence of superparamagnetic, single-domain, and vortex/pseudo-single domain signals only (i.e., no multi-domain particles > 1 µm). The oxidized state of the particles suggests that PM exposure in the LU is dominated by resuspension of aged dust particles relative to freshly abraded, metallic particles from the wheel/track/brake system, suggesting that periodic removal of accumulated dust from underground tunnels might provide a cost-effective strategy for reducing exposure. The abundance of ultrafine particles identified here could have particularly adverse health impacts as their smaller size makes it possible to pass from lungs to the blood stream. Magnetic methods are shown to provide an accurate assessment of ultrafine PM characteristics, providing a robust route to monitoring, and potentially mitigating this hazard.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

London Underground air pollution particles are finer than you think

Sheikh

Tung

Ringe

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Previous toxicology studies done in the Stockholm subway (Fe-rich microenvironment) did not see an increased risk of myocardial infarction in subway drivers compared to other manual workers in Stockholm 13 . However, a recent in vitro study by 14 using PM from the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines of Baker Street station in the LU did find evidence of increased risk of pneumococcal infection and mortality. Another in vitro study of PM 10 from the Stockholm subway also found that the air was 40-80 times more genotoxic and 20-40 more potent at causing oxidative stress when compared with an urban street environment 15 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 93%

Magnetic and microscopic investigation of airborne iron oxide nanoparticles in the London Underground

Sheikh

Tung

Ringe

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Particulate matter (PM) concentration levels in the London Underground (LU) are higher than London background levels and beyond World Health Organization (WHO) defined limits. Wheel, track, and brake abrasion are the primary sources of particulate matter, producing predominantly Fe-rich particles that make the LU microenvironment particularly well suited to study using environmental magnetism. Here we combine magnetic properties, high-resolution electron microscopy, and electron tomography to characterize the structure, chemistry, and morphometric properties of LU particles in three dimensions with nanoscale resolution. Our findings show that LU PM is dominated by 5–500 nm particles of maghemite, occurring as 0.1–2 μm aggregated clusters, skewing the size-fractioned concentration of PM artificially to larger sizes when measured with traditional monitors. Magnetic properties are largely independent of the PM filter size (PM10, PM4, and PM2.5), and demonstrate the presence of superparamagnetic (< 30 nm), single-domain (30–70 nm), and vortex/pseudo-single domain (70–700 nm) signals only (i.e., no multi-domain particles > 1 µm). The oxidized nature of the particles suggests that PM exposure in the LU is dominated by resuspension of aged dust particles relative to freshly abraded, metallic particles from the wheel/track/brake system, suggesting that periodic removal of accumulated dust from underground tunnels might provide a cost-effective strategy for reducing exposure. The abundance of ultrafine particles identified here could have particularly adverse health impacts as their smaller size makes it possible to pass from lungs to the blood stream. Magnetic methods are shown to provide an accurate assessment of ultrafine PM characteristics, providing a robust route to monitoring, and potentially mitigating this hazard.

show abstract

“…In a recent issue of eBioMedicine , Myiashita et al 10 expand on the current mechanistic information about particulate matter (PM) and its role in pneumococcal colonization and disease. The authors provide novel evidence for an effect of PM of size lower than 10 µm (PM 10 ) from the London underground on pneumococcal adherence to epithelial cells, associated with colonization, and their risk for inducing pneumococcal infection.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A particulate matter: How environmental irritants and particulate matter increase sensitivity to bacterial respiratory tract infections. Commentary for “Underground railway particulate matter and susceptibility to pneumococcal infection”

Håkansson

2022

eBioMedicine

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Underground Railway Particulate Matter and Susceptibility to Pneumococcal Infection

Cited by 3 publications

References 22 publications

London Underground air pollution particles are finer than you think

London Underground air pollution particles are finer than you think

Magnetic and microscopic investigation of airborne iron oxide nanoparticles in the London Underground

A particulate matter: How environmental irritants and particulate matter increase sensitivity to bacterial respiratory tract infections. Commentary for “Underground railway particulate matter and susceptibility to pneumococcal infection”

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