Using Lichen Chemistry to Assess Airborne Tungsten and Cobalt in Fallon, Nevada

This paper describes the use of lichen chemistry to assess airborne tungsten and cobalt in Fallon, Nevada, where a cluster of childhood leukemia has been on going since 1997. Lichens and their rock substrates were collected from Rattlesnake Hill within Fallon as well as from four different rock outcrops located north, east, south, and west of Fallon and at least 20 km away from the town center. In the lichens themselves, W and Co are significantly higher within Fallon than in the combined control site outside of Fallon. In the rock substrates of the lichens, no differences exist in W and Co. The W and Co differences in lichens cannot be attributed to substrate geochemistry. Fallon is distinctive in west central Nevada for high airborne W and Co, and given its cluster of childhood leukemia, it stands to reason that additional biomedical research is in order to test directly the leukogenicity of combined airborne W and Co.     

Spatial patterns of tungsten and cobalt in surface dust of Fallon,Nevada

Spatial patterns of tungsten and cobalt are described for surface dust of Fallon, Nevada, where a cluster of childhood leukemia has been ongoing since 1997. In earlier research, airborne tungsten and cobalt was shown to be elevated in total suspended particulates in Fallon. To fine-tune the spatial patterns of tungsten and cobalt deposition in Fallon, surface dust was collected in a grid pattern within as well as outside of Fallon to establish background concentrations of metals. In surface dust, tungsten and cobalt show sharp peaks (934 ppm and 98 ppm, respectively) within Fallon just north of highway 50 and west of highway 95. These two peaks overlap spatially, and given the grid pattern used for collecting surface dust, the source area of these two airborne metals can be pinpointed to the vicinity of hard-metal industry located north of highway 50 and west of highway 95. Fallon is distinctive in west central Nevada because of high airborne tungsten and cobalt particulates, and given its cluster of childhood leukemia, it stands to reason that additional biomedical research is in order to test directly the leukogenicity of combined airborne tungsten and cobalt particulates.     

Inhalation health effects of fine particles from the co-combustion of coal and refuse derived fuel

This paper is concerned with health effects from the inhalation of particulate matter (PM) emitted from the combustion of coal, and from the co-combustion of refuse derived fuel (RDF) and pulverized coal mixtures, under both normal and low NO_x conditions. Specific issues focus on whether the addition of RDF to coal has an effect on PM toxicity, and whether the application of staged combustion (for low NO_x) may also be a factor in this regard.

Ash particles were sampled and collected from a pilot scale combustion unit and then re-suspended and diluted to concentrations of 1000 μg/m³. These particles were inhaled by mice, which were held in a nose-only exposure configuration. Exposure tests were for 1 h per day, and involved three sets (eight mice per set) of mice. These three sets were exposed over 8, 16, and 24 consecutive days, respectively. Pathological lung damage was measured in terms of increases in lung permeability.

Results show that the re-suspended coal/RDF ash appeared to cause very different effects on lung permeability than did coal ash alone. In addition, it was also shown that a “snapshot” of lung properties after a fixed number of daily 1-h exposures, can be misleading, since apparent repair mechanisms cause lung properties to change over a period of time. For the coal/RDF, the greatest lung damage (in terms of lung permeability increase) occurred at the short exposure period of 8 days, and thereafter appeared to be gradually repaired. Ash from staged (low NO_x) combustion of coal/RDF appeared to cause greater lung injury than that from unstaged (high NO_x) coal/RDF combustion, although the temporal behavior and (apparent) repair processes in each case were similar. In contrast to this, coal ash alone showed a slight decrease of lung permeability after 1 and 3 days, and this disappeared after 12 days. These observations are interpreted in the light of mechanisms proposed in the literature. The results all suggest that the composition of particles actually inhaled is important in determining lung injury. Particle size segregated leachability measurements showed that water soluble sulfur, zinc, and vanadium, but not iron, were present in the coal/RDF ash particles, which caused lung permeabilities to increase. However, the differences in health effects between unstaged and staged coal/RDF combustion could not be attributed to variations in pH values of the leachate.