Particle Morphology and Elemental Analysis of Lung Tissue from Post-9/11 Military Personnel with Biopsy-Proven Lung Disease

Heather Lowers, Lauren Zell-Baran, Zikri Arslan, Camille M. Moore and Cecile Rose ()
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Heather Lowers: U.S. Geological Survey, Geology Geophysics Geochemistry Science Center, Denver, CO 80225, USA
Lauren Zell-Baran: National Jewish Health, Department of Medicine, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Denver, CO 80206, USA
Zikri Arslan: U.S. Geological Survey, Geology Geophysics Geochemistry Science Center, Denver, CO 80225, USA
Camille M. Moore: National Jewish Health, Department of Immunology and Genomic Medicine, Center for Genes, Environment and Health, Denver, CO 80206, USA
Cecile Rose: National Jewish Health, Department of Medicine, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Denver, CO 80206, USA

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: The relationship between exposure to inhaled inorganic particulate matter and risk for deployment-related lung disease in military personnel is unclear due in part to difficulties characterizing individual exposure to airborne hazards. We evaluated the association between self-reported deployment exposures and particulate matter (PM) contained in lung tissue from previously deployed personnel with lung disease (“deployers”). The PM in deployer tissues was compared to normal lung tissue PM using the analytical results of scanning electron microscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The majority of PM phases for both the deployers and the controls were sub-micrometer in size and were compositionally classified as aluminum and zirconium oxides, carbonaceous particles, iron oxides, titanium oxides, silica, other silicates, and other metals. The proportion of silica and other silicates was significantly higher in the retained dust from military veterans with biopsy-confirmed deployment-related lung disease compared to the control subjects. Within the deployer population, those who had combat jobs had a higher total PM burden, though the difference was not statistically significant. These findings have important implications for understanding the role of inhaled inorganic dusts in the risk for lung injury in previously deployed military veterans.

Keywords: dust; silica; particulate matter; respirable (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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