Please find the abstract for this month’s SOCAAR seminar attached.  

Cardiovascular Health and Urban Air Pollution: 
The Temporal Evolution of Vascular Responses to Size Fractioned Particulate 
Matter

Dr. Bruce Urch 
Research Associate, Gage Occupational and Environmental Health Unit

Dr. Krystal Godri Pollitt 
Research Fellow, Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry

The risk for heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular mortality is increased by 
exposure to gaseous and particulate air pollutants. Brief pollutant exposures at 
environmentally relevant concentrations can rapidly trigger arterial narrowing 
and increase blood pressure via changes in the autonomic nervous system.  
Pollutant induced oxidative stress/ inflammation has also been suggested to 
acutely impair blood vessel function.  Although our understanding of the 
pollutant mediated mechanism for cardiovascular changes has improved, the 
specific physical and chemical characteristics of ambient pollutants driving 
responses remains unclear.  

This seminar will examine the effect of human exposure to concentrated real-
world urban air particulate in a controlled laboratory on blood flow and the 
autonomic nervous system.  We will discuss the time course of response 
evolution from real-time physiologic changes during exposure to impairments 
which manifest post-exposure.  These cardiac responses will be further 
discussed with respect to particle composition including organic carbon, metals, 
and black carbon. The effect of different urban particulate size fractions 
(ultrafine, fine, coarse) on the healthy human vasculature will also be 
presented. 

January 9, 2013, 3 - 4 pm
Wallberg Building, 200 College Street, Room 407

This seminar will be recorded and be available after the talk at the following 
site: 
http://www.socaar.utoronto.ca/collaboration/SOCAAR_Seminar_Series.htm
Recordings of past SOCAAR seminars can also be found here.