On the measurement of toxic and carcinogenic aerosols in ambient air

Concentrations as well as genotoxic potencies of inorganic as well as organic anthropogenic aerosols have to be established to enable the evaluation of the toxic and carcinogenic health risk for the general population in different countries and regions. Inorganic substances as metals, carbonaceous particles, asbestos fibers, sulfates, nitrates, acidic components, as well as many organic compounds have to be quantitatively identified in the sampled inhalable atmospheric particulates. A complex procedure for the sampling, analysis and biological in vitro evaluation of such aerosols was developed, tested and will be shortly described in this paper.