A MAJOR CONCERN IN ENVIRONMENTAL AND OCCUPATIONAL AIR POLLUTION IS THE HAZARD POSED BY SUSPECTED CARCINOGENS.

A MAJOR CONCERN IN ENVIRONMENTAL AND OCCUPATIONAL AIR POLLUTION IS THE HAZARD POSED BY SUSPECTED CARCINOGENS. WHEREAS MOST PREVIOUS RESEARCH HAS FOCUSED ON CONCENTRATIONS OR BIOASSAYS OF SPECIFIC CHEMICAL AGENTS, THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT OF THE ""C-PROBE'' DIRECT PASSIVE MONITOR OFFERS A GREATLY SIMPLIFIED MEANS TO DETECT THE BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY OF UNSPECIFIED AGENTS WHICH MAY REFLECT THEIR CARCINOGENIC HAZARD. THE MONITOR IS DESIGNED TO MEASURE, COLORIMETRICALLY OR BY OTHER MEANS, EPOXIDE INTERMEDIATES AND/OR OXIDATION PRODUCTS OF METABOLIC ACTIVATION, IN A COMPACT, SELF-CONTAINED UNIT. THIS PROJECT IS INTENDED TO DEMONSTRATE PROOF OF CONCEPT FOR ""C-PROBE,'' BY PROVIDING DATA ON THE MEASUREMENT OF METABOLIC ACTIVATION OF CARCINOGEN PRECURSORS TO EPOXIDE INTERMEDIATES AND/OR OXIDATION PRODUCTS, AND BY DETERMINING ITS FEASIBILITY WITH SOLID AND LIQUID PHASE ADDITIONS AND AEROSOLS. EXPERIMENTS INVOLVE OPTIMIZING PROCEDURES FOR PREPARING PROTOTYPE ""C-PROBE'' UNITS, WET TESTS TO DETERMINE INDICATOR SENSITIVITY, LOADING REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MICROSOMAL ACTIVATION SEGMENT, AND EFFECTS OF BASELINE ARTIFACTS, DIFFUSION TESTS TO DETERMINE COLOR DEVELOPMENT TIME, AND AEROSOL