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Environment

Tracking diesel exhaust exposure

August 6, 2007 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 85, Issue 32

Urinary metabolites of 1-nitropyrene (1-NP, shown), a major component of diesel exhaust, can be used as a biomarker to assess human exposure to this kind of environmental pollution, according to a new study (Chem. Res. Toxicol. 2007, 20, 999). Diesel exhaust has been classified as a probable human carcinogen and nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have been fingered as some of the most likely culprits. Akira Toriba of Kanazawa University, in Japan, and colleagues demonstrate that certain 1-NP metabolites are excreted in the urine of human subjects exposed to 1-NP in the environment. The researchers devised a highly specific and sensitive analytical method using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry to quantify 1-NP metabolites in urine samples. "These findings suggest that urinary 1-NP metabolites may be used as a representative biomarker for assessing exposure to diesel exhaust," the authors note. The biomarker is expected to aid the study of cancer risk associated with such exposure, they add.

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