| dc.description.abstract |
Air pollution is a significant challenge in environmental health. According to the
World Health Organization (WHO), about 91% of world’s population live in areas where
WHO’s air quality guidelines were not met. Ambient air pollution causes approximately
4.2 million premature deaths worldwide. While outdoor ambient air quality is associated
with global mortality, indoor air pollution also possesses a significant challenge
to people’s health and well-being. In countries with less desirable air quality, the
use of air filtration devices is common. Despite the rise of negative ion air filtration
device usage, the purification efficiency and health effects of these devices remain
unclear.
The goal of this project is to evaluate health impacts of indoor negative ion air
filtration intervention in healthy young adults. The intervention is hypothesized
to reduce indoor fine particulate matter exposure and reduce adverse health effects
associated with indoor PM2.5 pollution. We conducted a randomized, double-blind, cross-over
study with two specific aims: first, to evaluate the effectiveness of PM2.5 removal
by negative ion air filtration device; second, to evaluate differences in health endpoints
associated with PM2.5 exposure between the two interventions.
Fifty-five healthy adults participated in this study. Each participant received a
random sequence of true and sham filtration intervention, with two weeks of washout
period in between. Before and after each intervention period, these participants provided
biological samples so we could measure specific biomarkers of interest to assess health
impacts of each intervention. My project only assessed urinary biomarkers.
Overall, only one out of the five biomarkers selected has statistically significant
result. No significant difference between true and sham intervention is observed for
urinary fMDA and (biomarkers of lipid peroxidation, reflecting cell membrane damage),
8-OHdG (a biomarker of oxidative damage to DNA), and 11-OHTXB1 (a biomarker of platelet
activation, reflecting thrombosis risk). The findings indicate that the negative ion
filtration did not lead to significant changes in biomarkers expected to be associated
with fine particle exposure reduction. More research is needed to investigate other
health endpoints and long-term changes associated with the use of negative ion air
filtration device.
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