Air Pollution of Particulate Matter and its Effect on Red Blood Cell Membranes

Particulate matter (PM) is classified as one of the most dangerous air pollutants which cause numerous adverse health effects. Prolonged exposure to high PM concentrations can lead to se-rious health complications and severe chronic conditions. Our research work is focused on the concentration of PM particles in ambient air. We studied how the concentration changes with different seasons (summer and autumn). The results of our experimental work show that the concentration of PM in the air increased during the colder period of the year. In autumn, the av-erage daily mass concentration was determined at 0.85 μg/m3, which means it was over the daily limit set by the WHO. These results indicate that the level of air pollution has a detrimental im-pact on human health in Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia. Due to strong impacts of PM par-ticles on our body, we further studied the impact of PM10 particles on human blood erythrocytes, with the aim of interdisciplinary synthesis of knowledge from the scientific fields like environ-mental protection and medicine. The results of in vitro studies show that a prolonged exposure to increasing concentration of PM10 particles causes a decrease in erythrocyte population. We also observed changes in membrane shapes when erythrocytes were exposed to PM particles for a longer time. We also observed the transition from echinocyte to stomatocyte cell shape with help of a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results of this research can be used as a basis for more extensive research on the systemic impact of inhaled PM particles on the human body.