Source apportionment of oxidative potential of atmospheric particulate matter : method & application at 15 sites in France

Abstract : Atmospheric ambient PM has already been shown to be linked to diverse health outcome such as asthma, cardiovascular disease and increase cancer risk. However, epidemiological studies focus only on PM mass despite the fact that the PM present a wide span of size, shape, chemical composition and so reactivity. The oxidative potential (OP) of PM has been proposed as a new proxy for air quality in order to better estimate the the population exposition since it integrates the different PM characteristic and is a closely linked to the inflammatory response of the body to the oxidative stress induced by PM, and so to different health outcomes. However, long time series of OP measurement are still poorly documented in the literature and no standardized assays has emerged. Moreover, very scars source apportionment of OP has been conducted yet.