Burn Pit-related Smoke Causes Acute Irritant Responses in Zebrafish that Vary by Fuel Type
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Combustion of mixed materials during open air burning of refuse and housefires produces emissions that worsen air and water quality and cause adverse health effects. The purpose of this study was to assess the irritant potential of extractable organic material of smoke condensates derived from the combustion of 5 different lab-generated burn pit smoke material types (plywood, cardboard, plastic, mixture, and mixture plus diesel) in a glass tube furnace. Irritant locomotor responses were measured in zebrafish (Danio rerio) larvae, a model that demonstrate irritant effects to chemicals that are analogous to mammals. It was hypothesized that smoke-induced locomotor responses, measures of irritant effects, might be dependent upon fuel type. To test this, locomotor activity was tracked for 60 min in 6-day-old zebrafish larvae immediately after exposure to 0.4% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) vehicle or burn pit extracts (0.4–40 μg/ml; half-log intervals). Preliminary data indicates that both plastic and cardboard elicited concentration-dependent irritant responses as indicated by increased locomotor activity. At the highest concentration, plastic was overtly toxic, causing a sedative-like effect, whereas cardboard was irritating but not overtly toxic. At lower concentrations, plastic produced similar or greater irritant effects than cardboard at equal concentrations. Locomotor assessments of the remaining fuel types are forthcoming. These initial findings indicate that burn pit-related smoke has the potential for irritating effects that are likely influenced by material type burned (Abstract does not reflect U.S. EPA policy; DoD award #W811XWH-18-1-0731(IJ)).