Abstract
Oxidative stress is considered as one of the main mechanisms by which airborne particles produce adverse health effects. Several methods to estimate the oxidative potential (OP) of particulate matter (PM) have been proposed. Among them, the dithiothreitol (DTT) assay has gained popularity due to its simplicity and overall low implementation cost. Usually, the estimations of OPDTT are based on n-replicates of a set of samples and their associated standard deviation. However, interlaboratory comparisons of OPDTT can be difficult and lead to misinterpretations. This work presents an estimation of the total uncertainty for the OPDTT measurement of PM10 and PM2.5 samples collected in Santiago (Chile), based on recommendations by the Joint Committee for Guides in Metrology and Eurachem. The expanded uncertainty expressed as a percentage of the mass-normalized OPDTT measurements was 18.0% and 16.3% for PM10 and PM2.5 samples respectively. The dominating contributor to the total uncertainty was identified (i.e., DTT consumption rate, related to the regression and repeatability of experimental data), while the volumetric operations (i.e., pipettes) were also important. The results showed that, although the OP measured following the DTT assay has been successfully used to estimate the potential health impacts of airborne PM, uncertainty estimations must be considered before interpreting the results.
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This paper was financially supported by the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research CONICYT/FONDECYT through grant no.1160617 and grant no.1118051. CM was partial supported by Programa Nacional de Becas de Postgrado 2018 no. 21181015.
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The authors, in special MALG, dedicate this work in loving memory of wonderful father Manuel de la Cruz Leiva Angulo (1927–2019). “Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to die before you die and find that there is no death” (Eckhart Tolle, in “The Power of Now”).
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Molina, C., Andrade, C., Manzano, C.A. et al. Dithiothreitol-based oxidative potential for airborne particulate matter: an estimation of the associated uncertainty. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 29672–29680 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09508-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09508-3