Abstract for presentation at 14th IUAPPA World Congress

The potential health risks associated with exposure to indoor contaminants via dust are of significant concern. House dust has been suggested as a repository for environmental pollutants. Traditional air pollution monitoring approaches heavily rely on chemical analysis of individual target compounds. Bioanalytical approaches which assess the overall toxicity mechanisms of indoor pollutants as a mixture may provide a more meaningful assessment of the potential hazard resulting from exposure to these chemicals. The present study intends to develop a novel indoor air pollution monitoring strategy by collecting house dust samples and conducting a risk assessment based on genotoxic and dioxin-like effects using SOS/umu and DR-CAFLUX assays, respectively. House dust was sampled from 9 buildings located in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Follow up sampling was conducted at two of these sites, one month after smoking was prohibited in public venues. Dust was extracted with acetone:dichloromethane (50:50, v/v), and using size exclusion chromatography extracts were separated to isolate the fraction containing important classes of SOCs (e.g. PAHs, PCDD/Fs, Nitro-PAHs). Extracts were then solvent exchanged to dimethyl sulfoxide, and tested twice in triplicate on the SOS/umu and DR-CAFLUX assays. Results show the presence of genotoxic and dioxin-like chemicals in the majority of the sites, with the highest toxicity found in the sites where smoking was allowed. Subsequent samples from these sites, one month after smoking was banned, showed lower toxicity values.