AbstractThe American Lung Association estimates that more than 64, 000 Americans die prematurely each year due

to inhalation of microscopic particles that are legally emitted by Americans into the atmosphere from factories, electric power plants, diesel engines, etc (Johnson, 07). Tens of thousands of people die each year

as a direct result of exposure to high levels of air pollution (Spinrad, 07). The coarse fraction of urban aerosols also contains bits of plants, molds, spores and some bacteria. Thus the characteristics of the coarse particles may vary greatly in different communities. The fine particles come from combustion sources, such

as power plants, automobile, truck, bus and other vehicle exhaust or from the reactions that transform some of the pollutant gases into solid or liquid particles (Kleinman, 00). The main objective of the present study

was to develop an integrated ecotoxicologic approach with the land snail Helix aspersa for monitoring both accumulation and toxicologic effects caused by urban pollutants, including vehicular exhausts and other

chemicals such as those associated with tire manufacturing, which can be transported by PM from the road surface. The use of sentinel species is of particular interest to assess biological reactivity of such complex

mixtures that are difficult to characterize on a chemical basis (Regoli, 06). The purpose of this experiment is to demonstrate the effects of the amount of distance away from air pollution on an organism.

Need

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Knowledge Base

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• Gas exchange through the skin• They eat grass and leaves

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Literature Review• H. Aspersa were divided into 2 groups of 50 and settled in cages with no direct contact with

soil• Daily they were fed carrots and moistened to prevent the occurrence of a dormancy state• Trace metals and PAHs were measured in composite pools of digestive glands dissected from

20 snails

Literature Review• Earthworms from different sites were kept for 3 days on wet blotting-paper to empty their

digestive tracks• They were then killed by freezing and desiccated.• The Drabkin method was used to determine hemoglobin content of the earthworms

Literature Review• Earthworms were cut with scissors at a position just anterior to their hearts and bled into CO-

saturated 0.1 M sodium phosphate buffer containing 3 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride as a protease inhibitor.

Literature Review• Daily deaths in the city of Philadelphia were extracted from mortality tapes from the National

Center for Health Statistics fro the calendar years 1973-1980• The 5% of the days with the highest TSP levels, (controlling for the factors; year of study,

continuous time trend, very hot days, temperature, humidity, and winter temperature) and the 5% of the days with the lowest TSP levels were extracted

• There was a total of 284 days of data

Purpose

• The purpose of this study is to find the effect of distance from the emissions of hydrocarbon on the hemoglobin rate of earthworms

Hypothesis

• Null : The living location of the earthworm will not effect any of the earthworms rates of hemoglobin.

• Alternate : The earthworms that live closest to the higher rate of air pollution will have a lower rate of hemoglobin in their blood (Regoli, 06).

The Effects of Hydrocarbon Emissions on the Level of Hemoglobin in Earthworms

Group 1

Live in an environment the farthest away from air pollution

(In the forest of a museum)

Group 2

Located in the front yard of a house a little bit away from a semi-busy road

Group 3

Live in an environment close to air pollution (next to a busy highway-club)

Control Group

Earthworms bought from a store with no exposure to air pollution

Procedure

20 earthworms will be placed in each cage that will be placed at all 4 sites for 1 week each of exposure. The cages will be filled with soil and placed into the ground at each location with leaves in the bottom of the hole to keep the cages warm. Rain covers will be made to place over the cages at the locations to prevent rain to get into the cages. After the week ends the earthworms will be collected from the sites and tested for the amount of hemoglobin in their blood by the Drabkin method.

Data Analysis

This data will be recorded in graphs and charts and analyzed by ANOVA and the Scheffe post hoc test to find the mean and SD.

Bibliography• American Chemical Society. “Carbon Dioxide Removed From Smokestacks Could Be useful In DVD and CD-ROM

Manufacture.” Science Daily 9 April 2008. 14 April 2008. http://www.sciecnedaily.com/releases2008/04/080408144824.htm.

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• Bertollini, Roberto. Health Aspects of Air Pollution. World Health Organization. Copenhagen, 2004. 1-24. 17 Apr. 2008.•  • Champeau, Rachel. “Study shows how ultrafine particles in air pollution may cause heart disease” UCLA News 17 Janurary

2008. 18 April 2008. <http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu>•  • Johnson, Stephen. "Outdoor Air Pollution." 21 June 2007. Environmental Protection Agency. 30 Apr. 2008

<http://healthandenergy.com/outdoor_air_pollution.htm>.•  • Karolinska Institutet. “Traffic Exhaust Can Cause Asthma, Allergies and Impaired Respiratory Function in Children.” Science

Daily 10 April 2008. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080409114631.htm.

• Kleinman, Michael T. The Health Effects of Air Pollution on Children. 2000. 1 May 2008.

•  

Bibliography• Krzyzanowski, Michael. Particulate Matter Air Pollution: How It Harms Health. World Health Organization. 2005. 29 Apr.

2008.•  • Regoli, Francesco. “Use of Land Snail Helix Aspersa as Sentinel Organism for Monitoring Ecotoxicologic Effects of Urban

Pollution: an Integrated Approach.” Environmental Health Perspectives 114 (2006): 63-69. 12 May 2008 • http://www.ehponline.org/members/2005/8397/8397.pdf.•  • Rozen, Anna. “Influence of Different Levels of Traffic Pollution on Haemoglobin Content in the Earthworm Lumbricus

Terrestris.” Soil Biol. Biochem. 29 (1997): 709-711. 16 May 2008.•  • Spinrad, Richard W. United States. NOAA Research. Understanding Air Quality. 11 June 2007. 1 May 2008

<http://www.oar.noaa.gov/weather/t_understanding.html>.•  • Thompson, Steven A. "10 Simple Steps to Improving Air Quality." Department of Environmental Quality. Mar. 2003. 1 May

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• Traut, Thomas. Allosteric Regulatory Enzymes. Springer US, 2008. 11 June 2008 <http://www.springerlink.com/content/w5u7272335137250/>.

• University of Virginia. “Flowers’ Fragrance Diminished By Air Pollution, Study Indicates.” Science Daily 11 April 2008. 13 April 2008 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080410170413.htm.