Objectives/Goals: Develop a reliable methodology to deliver and study asphalt emission exposure on lung physiology, enabling the assessment of acute volatile organic compound (VOC) effects with minimal confounding, and test filtration techniques for efficacy. Methods/Study Population: Sixteen healthy adults (18-50 years) visited the Mayo Clinic cardiopulmonary research lab in Scottsdale, Arizona. Subjects wore a mask fitted with a one-way breathing valve connected to a mixing chamber where they would inhale the VOCs that come from a cocktail of chemical compounds captured from heated asphalt. These VOCs were administered by study staff every 5 minutes for a total of 60 minutes of exposure. Pulmonary measures recorded before and after exposure included respiratory oscillometry, exhaled hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide, diffusion capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide and nitric oxide, lung ultrasound, basic spirometry, and transcranial Doppler ultrasound. Results/Anticipated Results: The VOCs delivered replicate urban environmental exposure on hot days, consistent with literature linking high VOC exposure to pulmonary disease and cancer. Preliminary findings show acute changes in alveolar-membrane conductance (DM; mean Δ=53.1 mL/min/mmHg) when unfiltered VOCs were administered. This response was accompanied by increased function gas exchange units (DM/Vc; mean Δ=1.027). These early findings confirm successful implementation of the exposure method and suggest reproducible physiologic responses to acute VOC exposure. Completion of this study is expected to reveal additional markers of pulmonary inflammation and validate a controlled, scalable platform for testing VOC exposure in the laboratory setting. Discussion/Significance of Impact: These methods are the first of their kind to provide a means to study the acute effects of exposure to asphalt in humans in a controlled, laboratory environment. This offers great significance in understanding the environmental exposures that are affecting the health of those that are exposed to asphalt daily.
Parks et al. (Wed,) studied this question.