Air pollution is the presence of toxic chemicals or compounds emitted into the air at a level that poses a threat to the environment and human health. This Ph.D. thesis provides construction of two energy self-supported mobile laboratories and an environmental chamber for animal exposure experiments to target on real-time on-road measurement of atmospheric contaminants and in-depth health investigations of multiple air pollutants.

Concern has been raised that select atmospheric pollutants might adversely impact the performance of Honda’s fuel cell car due to the heavy air pollution in Southern California. Ammonium and sodium cations may displace hydrogen ions in the fuel cell’s Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM), while SO2 and NO2 may react with the platinum anode. Ammonia may attack the cathode directly and can be a potential source of additional ammonium cations. A short-period intensive study was performed to identify transient and average exposure levels to these species in Southern California and to compare these values to the closest local air monitoring station data. We found highly elevated NO2 and SO2 concentration in the industrial areas and similar concentration range for other target contaminants when comparing with available data from SCAQMD.

The negative impact of air pollution also prompts the development of health research. Most in-vivo health studies conducted regarding air pollutants have been either through traditional medical intranasal treatment or using a tiny chamber, which limit animal activities. In this study, we designed and tested a large, whole-body, multiple animal exposure chamber that simultaneously controls particle size distribution and PM mass concentration. We demonstrate that the chamber system provides well controlled and characterized whole animal exposures, where dosage is by inhalation of particulate matter. We found inhalation exposure to a natural fungal allergen sufficient to induce lung inflammation and surprisingly caused reductions in baseline expression of select innate immune molecules in the region of the CNS controlling respiration.