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PubMed1996

[A study on plasma non-species specific antibody in employees working in a automobile engine testing workshop].

To investigate the existence of the non-species specific antibody in plasma of the employees working in an automobile engine testing workshop, and to use it as a scanning marker of various hazards, the heat-stress protein antigen method and western blot technique were used. This study showed that employees working in the automoblile engine testing workshop were affected by various hazards, such as noise, toxic chemicals (carbon monoxide, lead fume, benzene, and so on), and there existed non-species specific antibodies against protein 103,900 and 54,200 of rat liver in their plasma, which were postulated as the specific products produced by exposure to occupational hazards, such as noise, carbon monoxide, et al.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

The effect of frontal air bags on eye injury patterns in automobile crashes.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate eye injuries resulting from frontal automobile crashes and to determine the effects of frontal air bags. METHODS: The National Automotive Sampling System database files from January 1, 1993, through December 31, 1999, were examined in a 3-part study that included an investigation of 22 236 individual crashes that occurred in the United States. A new 4-level eye injury severity scale that quantifies injuries based on recovery time, need for surgery, and possible loss of sight was developed. RESULTS: Of all occupants who were exposed to an air bag deployment, 3% sustained an eye injury. In contrast, 2% of occupants not exposed to an air bag deployment sustained an eye injury. A closer examination of the type of eye injuries showed that there was a statistically significant increase in the risk of corneal abrasions for occupants who were exposed to an air bag compared with those who were not (P =.03). Of occupants exposed to an air bag deployment, 0.5% sustained a corneal abrasion compared with 0.04% of occupants who were not exposed to an air bag. CONCLUSIONS: Using the new injury levels, it was shown that although occupants exposed to an air bag deployment had a higher risk of sustaining minor eye injuries, the air bag appears to have provided a beneficial exchange by reducing the number of severe eye injuries.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed1977

Pulmonary tumorigenesis in Syrian golden hamsters after intratracheal instillations with automobile exhaust condensate.

Syrian golden hamsters were intratracheally instilled once every two weeks for life with automobile exhaust condensate (AEC) at two dose levels. The condensate was prepared from the most common German passenger car driven in the Europa-Test cycle (simulated city driving) and contained 340 microgram/g benzo(a)pyrene (B(a)P). Despite the very low total dose of B(a)P received, all animals of both dosage groups developed multiple pulmonary adenomas. Electron microscopy revealed these tumors to resemble B(a)P induced pulmonary adenomas in their ultrastructure. Numerous condensate-laden macrophages in tumor and peripheral lung tissues indicated that little of the instilled condensate had been removed from the airways through mucociliary action.

Adenoma↗
PubMed1994

Damage awards and jurors' responsibility ascriptions in medical versus automobile negligence cases.

Many critics of the tort system have accused juries of assessing larger awards against defendants perceived to have the ability to pay. Juries are said to be particularly prone to go after the 'deep pockets' of doctors in medical malpractice cases as compared to defendants found negligent in automobile accidents. This hypothesis was put to a test in an experiment that manipulated cause of the injury (medical malpractice versus negligent driving) and degree of possible contributing responsibility by the plaintiff (mandatory versus elective surgery and plaintiff as another driver or as a passenger). Responsibility ascriptions to the plaintiff differed across conditions, but jurors did not differentially award pain and suffering damages across conditions.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed1989

Influence of particulate trap oxidizers on emission of mutagenic compounds by diesel automobiles.

Diesel exhaust particles are known to contain mutagenic and carcinogenic chemicals. The aim of this study was to determine whether, and to what extent, catalytic particulate trap oxidizers on light-duty diesel engines may reduce the emission of particle-associated mutagenic chemicals into the environment. Exhaust particles were collected from Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen diesel automobiles, equipped with or without the manufacturer's exhaust traps, while running on a chassis dynamometer under specified load conditions. Exhaust particles were collected from a dilution tunnel onto 20" X 20" Teflon-coated fiberglass filters. Mutagenesis tests of dichloromethane (DCM) extracts of the particles were conducted using the Ames Salmonella bacterial test system. The mutation rate was calculated in terms of histidine revertants per mile of travel during a set of standard test cycles. With both vehicles the traps produced an 87-92% reduction in the total amount of particulate material collected by the filters. There was no significant change in the specific mutagenic activity (revertants per microgram of DCM particle extract) with or without the traps. These studies support the notion that installation of exhaust traps which reduce particulate emission on diesel-powered vehicles will also reduce the emission of particle-associated mutagenic and carcinogenic materials into the environment.

Air Pollution↗
PubMed1983

Intratracheal instillation of automobile exhaust condensate in Syrian golden hamsters.

Male Syrian golden hamsters were intratracheally instilled with automobile exhaust condensate at dose levels of 0.306, 0.613, 1.25, 2.5, and 5.0 mg/hamster once a fortnight for 78 weeks. While a total of six tumors were found in the trachea and lung, hamsters treated with the vehicle only showed no respiratory tract neoplasms. Bronchiogenic adenomatous proliferations and hyperplastic nodules in the lung occurred in all groups, with a significant difference in incidence being seen between the high-dose groups and the controls.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Relationship of air lead and blood lead for workers at an automobile battery factory.

Air lead and blood lead data, recorded over a period of 3 years for 972 employees at an automobile battery factory as part of a lead control program, were summarized and statistically analyzed. The air lead values were measured by mobile area samplers for approximately 2 years and then by personal samplers for approximately 1 year. Blood lead analyses were usually performed once a month for most of the workers. The trend in air lead levels was significantly upward in the 1st year and significantly downward in the 2nd year while the trend in blood lead levels was significantly downward in the 1st year and in the 3rd year. There were no other significant trends. To assess the relationship between air lead and blood lead, data were used whenever an air lead obtained by personal sampler was followed within 1 month by a blood lead on the same worker. The variables age, job tenure, and department identity were included in an analysis of covariance. Only air lead and departments were significant, accounting for 9% and 13% of the variance in blood lead, respectively. From these data 95% confidence limits were calculated for predicting blood leads from given air leads for an individual worker. These were 30-68 micrograms/100 ml at 200 micrograms/m3, 25-62 micrograms/100 ml at 100 micrograms/m3, and 22-60 micrograms/100 ml at 50 micrograms/m3.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Significance of platinum group metals emitted from automobile exhaust gas converters for the biosphere.

INTENTION, GOAL, SCOPE, BACKGROUND: Following the introduction of automobile catalytic converters the platinum group metals (PGM) platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd) and rhodium (Rh) gain on increasing interest in environmental research as these metals are emitted with exhaust fumes into the environment. Consequently, elevated PGM levels were found in different environmental matrices such as road dusts, soils along heavily frequented roads, sediments of urban rivers etc. Accordingly, the effects of increasing PGM emissions on the biosphere are controversially discussed. OBJECTIVE: This paper summarizes the present knowledge on the biological availability of PGM to plants and animals. As biological availability is one of the most decisive factors determining the toxicological potential of xenobiotics, this information is very important to evaluate the possible threat of the noble metals to ecosystems. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The availability of soluble as well as particle bound PGM to terrestrial plants was demonstrated in several studies. Experimental investigations revealed uptake of Pt, Pd and Rh also by aquatic plants. Additionally, the biological availability of the noble metals for animals has been verified in experimental studies using soluble metal salts, catalytic converter model substances, sediments of urban rivers, road dust or tunnel dust as metal sources. These studies refer mainly to aquatic animals. Beside of free living organisms, in particular worms parasitizing fish demonstrated a high potential to accumulate PGM. This could be of great interest in respect of biomonitoring purposes. Generally, for plants as well as for animals Pd turns out to be the best available metal among the PGM. Compared to other heavy metals, the biological availability of PGM from road dust to zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) ranged between that of Cd and Pb. CONCLUSION: Especially chronic effects of PGM on the biosphere can not be excluded due to (1) their cumulative increase in the environment, (2) their unexpected high biological availability and bioaccumulation and (3) their unknown toxicological and ecotoxicological potential. However, it appears that acute effects on ecosystems due to anthropogenic PGM emission are not likely. RECOMMENDATION AND OUTLOOK: Research on environmental PGM contamination of the biosphere, especially the fauna, and on long-term toxicity of low PGM concentrations is highly appreciated. These studies require very sensitive analytical techniques to determine PGM even in low sample amounts. Research has to be done in particular on reliable determination of (ultra) trace levels of Pd and Rh as the lack of data on these two metals is mainly due to analytical problems.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Platinum solubility of a substance designed as a model for emissions of automobile catalytic converters.

Automobile catalytic converters emit nanocrystalline platinum attached to alumina particles. For investigations about the bioavailability of Pt from these particles a model substance with approx. 5% Pt on alumina has been prepared and characterized by physical methods (ESCA, XRD, TEM, DTA, TG). Measuring the platinum solubility of these samples in different solvents revealed high amounts that can be explained assuming a corrosion process. The portion of soluble platinum is dependent on the particle size distribution. For a comparative study platinum black has been used. In general the platinum determination has been carried out by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ET-AAS). The comparison of ET-AAS results with determinations by adsorptive voltammetry (formazone method) allowed to distinguish between elemental and ionic platinum; in solution samples only ionic platinum has been present. UV spectra of extracts have been used for the semi-quantitative platinum speciation in solutions.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1987

Public policy and automobile occupant restraint: an economist's perspective.

Cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) of policies intended to increase occupant restraint in automobiles typically find that such policies generate social benefits that exceed social costs, often by a considerable margin. The analyses are incomplete, however, due to their inability to incorporate potentially important costs and benefits that are hard to measure and monetize. Furthermore, analyses fail to account for distributional and political considerations. Despite these limitations, the evidence produced by the occupant restraint CBAs tends to bolster the case of advocates of mandatory passive restraints and other restraint policies. Support for governmental involvement can also be found in economic theory, although the theoretical case is not necessarily compelling. The principal lesson of this review of economic analysis of the occupant restraint issue is that analysis can inform an injury policy debate, but it cannot provide conclusive answers, nor can it serve as a substitute for the political decision-making process.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed1991

The intensity of auditory warning tones in the automobile environment: detection and preference evaluations.

A variety of auditory warning tones was evaluated to determine generally appropriate intensity levels for presentation in the automobile environment. Twenty-four subjects listened to tones presented at several intensity levels under three background noise conditions recorded in actual vehicles: relatively quiet (35 mile/h (56 km/h), smooth road), relatively loud (55 mile/h (89 km/h), rough road), and radio (35 mile/h (56 km/h), smooth road, and radio broadcast). Data were gathered on the minimum intensity level (in decibels (dB) above the masked threshold (MT) required to achieve a consistent criterion detection rate, as well as the preferred tone intensity level (in dB above the MT) in each background noise condition. The preferred levels were louder than those required to achieve the detection criterion in both the relatively loud and quiet background noise conditions; thus, the preferred levels are the recommended levels under those conditions. This was not the case in the radio condition; therefore, it is recommended that future research efforts evaluate the effects of automatically muting the radio/stereo system when important auditory warning tones are being presented.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1980

Detection of mutagenic activity in automobile exhaust.

Using the Ames Salmonella-microsome system, we detected mutagenic activity in the exhaust from two kinds of 4-cycle gasoline engines of unregulated and regulated cars, and from diesel engines, as well as in the particulates from air collected in tunnels. The mutagenicity of particulates from a car equipped with a catalyst (regulated car), as compared with that from an unregulated car, was reduced very much (down to 500 from 4500 revertants/plate/m3 in tester strain TA98). However, the mutagenicity of the ether-soluble acid and neutral fractions from the condensed water of emissions from a regulated car was still high (down to 2880 from 10 900 revertants/plate/m3 in tester strain TA100). The mutagenic activity of emission exhaust from old diesel car engines was very high; the particulates showed 9140 and 19 600 revertants/plate/m3 from strain TA98 incubated with an activating rat-liver S9 fraction. A small diesel engine of the type used for the generation of electric power or in farm machinery also produced exhaust with highly mutagenic particulates. The mutagenic activity of a methanol extract of particulate air pollutants collected in a highway tunnel showed 39 revertants/plate/m3 toward strain TA98 and 87 toward strain TA100. The ether-soluble neutral fraction yielded 86 revertants/plate/m3 from strain TA98 and 100 from strain TA100. This fraction also contained carcinogenic compounds, including benzo[a]pyrene, benzo[e]pyrene, benz[a]anthracene, benzo[ghi]perylene and chrysene. Very high mutagenic activity was detected, especially in the particulate air pollutants collected at night, in another tunnel on a superhighway: 60-88 revertants/plate/m3 from strain TA100 for the sample collected by day, but 121-238, by night. Night traffic includes many more diesel-powered vehicles compared with gasoline-powered automobiles.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed1992

Methemoglobinemia secondary to automobile exhaust fumes.

Methemoglobinemia is an uncommon cause of cyanosis. A 28-year-old male presented to the emergency department cyanotic and short of breath after exposure to noxious automobile fumes. He did not improve with the administration of 100% oxygen therapy. The initial arterial blood gas with cooximetry was: pH of 7.38, PaCO2 of 43 mm Hg, PaO2 of 118 mm Hg, measured oxygen saturation of 70%, and a methemoglobin level of 24.8%. Methylene blue was given (2 mg/kg intravenously) and the patient's symptoms resolved. On the following day he was discharged home without complication. A comprehensive review of the literature revealed no reported cases of methemoglobinemia secondary to accidental exposure to exhaust fumes.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

The effects of depowered airbags on eye injuries in frontal automobile crashes.

The purpose of this study was to investigate eye injuries resulting from frontal automobile crashes and to determine the effects of depowered airbags. The National Automotive Sampling System database files from 1993 to 2000 were examined in a 3-part investigation of 22 236 individual crashes. Of the 2 103 308 occupants exposed to a full powered deployment, 3.7% sustained an eye injury compared to 1.7% of the 310 039 occupants exposed to a depowered airbag deployment. Occupants were at a significantly higher risk to sustain an airbag-induced eye injury when exposed to a full powered airbag compared with occupants exposed to a depowered airbag deployment ( P = .04). Approximately, 90% of the eye injuries in full powered airbag deployments were caused by the airbag, compared to only 35% of the depowered airbag eye injuries.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed2004

Dioxin emission factors for automobiles from tunnel air sampling in Northern Taiwan.

This study measured PCDD/F concentrations in tunnel air and vehicle exhaust. The ambient air samples were collected with air samplers (Tisch PS-1) complying with USEPA TO-9A. The results indicate that the tunnel air had a PCDD/F TEQ concentration about two times as high as that of outside air (47.3 and 57.1 fg-I-TEQ/m3 for tunnel air vs. 37.1 fg-I-TEQ/m3 and 23.3 fg-I-TEQ/m3 for outside air, respectively). This provides the direct evidence that PCDD/F compounds are emitted from the combustion processes in gasoline- and diesel-fueled engines. According to the tunnel study, the emission factors ranged from 5.83 to 59.2 pg I-TEQ/km for gasoline vehicles and 23.32 to 236.65 pg I-TEQ/km of diesel vehicles. This indicates that the dioxin emission factor in Taiwan is lower than that measured in USA, Norway and Germany. When the speed of the diesel vehicle was set at 40 km/h, the dioxin concentration emitted from diesel vehicle was 278 pg/m3 (6.27 pg-I-TEQ/m3) from tailpipe testing. However, when the diesel vehicle was idled, the dioxin concentration increased greatly to 4078 pg/m3 (41.9 pg-I-TEQ/m3). From the results of tunnel air sampling, the PCDD/Fs emission from automobiles in Taiwan was estimated as 3.69 g I-TEQ per year.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Management status of end-of-life vehicles and characteristics of automobile shredder residues in Korea.

An end-of-life vehicle (ELV) is dismantled to recover and recycle any re-usable parts, then shipped to the shredding facility for further recovery of iron with any remaining Automobile Shredder Residue (ASR) to be considered as wastes and to be disposed of by either thermal treatment or landfill. Overall ELVs management status in Korea, including recycling resulting from the dismantling processes, was surveyed using some questionnaires given to dismantlers and other available information to provide some feasible means for future treatment. The averaged recycle rate in the dismantling stage showed a value of 44% and the rest of an ELV was then compressed and transported to shredding companies to recover mainly the iron content which averaged 38.7% of the mass of a new vehicle. The non-ferrous metals such as copper, antimony, zinc and aluminum accounted for only 1.5%. The Shredder dusts (SDs) were found to be composed of light and heavy fluffs and soil/dust and amounted to 15.8% based on the mass of a new vehicle. Dumping of fluff and inorganic residues into a landfill site, however, will be restricted when new regulations are implemented to reduce the disposal amount to less than 5% of a new car as done in European countries and Japan. The detailed characteristics of SDs were investigated to provide an idea of how to treat them in order to meet a future expected enforcement.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗
PubMed1999

Hearing loss and automobile airbag deployments.

In an on-going research program, on the causation of injuries in motor vehicle accidents, at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, crashes with airbags have been, and are continuing to be, investigated. In order to determine the occurrence, if any, of 'hearing problems' associated with airbag deployments, drivers and passengers who had been involved in 'airbag' automobile crashes were interviewed by telephone. From the crashes investigated, 225 attempts were made to contact drivers who were exposed to airbag deployments. From these telephone interviews, contacts were made with 177 car occupants. Only three reported that they had experienced any type of hearing-related problems subsequent to their crash. One other case is reported of a driver who had pre-crash hearing loss. It appears that permanent hearing deficit due to airbag deployment, both in cars with the steering wheel airbag alone, and in those with a passenger side airbag, is an infrequent event (1.7%) from the data of this study.

Accidents, Traffic↗