Study On Biological Effects Induced By Methanol-fueled Tailpipe Emission

INTRODUCTION:Gasoline is a kind of world-wide vehicle fuel.But there is drastic conflict between its supply and demand as vehicles increase all round the world.And gasoline-fueled automobiles emissions have been the important sources of air contaminations. Whereas above causes.most countries have been exploring gasoline substitute with plenty amount and little adverse influence on environment and health.Methanol is a most promising gasoline substitute.Its chemical and physical character is similar to gasoline.And methanol-fueled vehicles emissions have fewer CO, HC, in comparison with gasoline emissions.But it is quite short of methanol-fueled emission affects on health.OBJECT:To compare biological effects between methanol- and gasoline-fueled emissions through a set of experiments in vitro.and offer some hygienic evidences for methanol fuel as gasoline substitute.METHODS:1 Designed two sets of devices for respectively collecting unregulatedcomponents in gasoline- and methanol-fueled emissions;2 Two vehicle emissions were all sampled in same condition of idling from two same type buses respectively with methanol and gasoline engines;3 Applied GC/MS to determine unregulated components of two emissions,and emission analyzer to determine regulated components at sampling spot;4 Cell proliferation and apoptosis experiments(1) To compare proliferation and apoptosis of A549 cell after gasoline-and methanol-fueled emissions treatment;(2) To compare proliferation and apoptosis of RAW264.7 cell after gasoline- and methanol-fueled emissions treatment;5 Cell immunotoxicity experiments(1) To compare Rosette formation rates of rabbit pulmonary alveolarmacrophage after gasoline- and methanol-fueled emissions treatment;(2) To compare ADCC of rabbit pulmonary alveolar macrophage aftergasoline- and methanol-fueled emissions treatment;(3) To compare immunity of rabbit pulmonary alveolar macrophage to Hela cell after gasoline- and methanol-fueled emissions treatment;6 Cell genotoxicity experiments(1) To apply A549 cell to perform Micronucleus test;(2) To apply A549 cell to perform comet assay;(3) Ames assay;(4) TK gene testRESULTS:1 Successfully designed two sets of devices for sampling the unregulated components in gasoline- and methanol-fueled tailpipe emissions;2 The main unregulated components in methanol-fueled emission are methanol (2.83 g/m3),formaldehyde(0.05 g/m3); 99 unregulated comonents in gasoline-fueled emission are detected,including monocyclic aromatics , olefin and alkane, indene, aldehyde ,PAH(Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons), with 78.44%, 12.28%, 6.55%, 1.97%, 0.45%(% of total abundance);3 Regulated components in methanol- and gasoline-fueled emission are:CO 4.02 % , HC 1870 ppm; CO 8.36 % , HC 2390 ppm.respectively;4 Cell proliferation and apoptosis experiments show: gasoline exhaust is distinctly stronger than the effects of methanol exhaust for both the cell toxicity and the restraining to cell proliferation; but group methanol is a little greater than group gasoline for the cell apoptosis;5 Cell immunotoxicity experiments show: gasoline emission has significant immunotoxicity ,while methanol emission has no or much lower affect;6 Cell genotoxicity experiments show:gasoline emission has obvious genotoxicity.meanwhile methanol emission has no or much lower affect.Conclusion:To sum up above results,it is realized that methanol-fueled tailpipe emission has more or less affects on health,but its adverse influence is distinctly lower than that of gasoline-fueled tailpipe emission.It is promising for methanol to be substitute of gasoline from the point of view ofenvironment and health.