title: Physico-chemical properties of quartz from industrial manufacturing and its cytotoxic effects on alveolar macrophages: The case of green sand mould casting for iron production.
abstract: Industrial processing of materials containing quartz induces physico-chemical modifications that contribute to the variability of quartz hazard in different plants. Here, modifications affecting a quartz-rich sand during cast iron production, have been investigated. Composition, morphology, presence of radicals associated to quartz and reactivity in free radical generation were studied on a raw sand and on a dust recovered after mould dismantling. Additionally, cytotoxicity of the processed dust and ROS and NO generation were evaluated on MH-S macrophages. Particle morphology and size were marginally affected by casting processing, which caused only a slight increase of the amount of respirable fraction. The raw sand was able to catalyze OH and CO2(-) generation in cell-free test, even if in a lesser extent than the reference quartz (Min-U-Sil), and shows hAl radicals, conventionally found in any quartz-bearing raw materials. Enrichment in iron and extensive coverage with amorphous carbon were observed during processing. They likely contributed, respectively, to increasing the ability of processed dust to release CO2- and to suppressing OH generation respect to the raw sand. Carbon coverage and repeated thermal treatments during industrial processing also caused annealing of radiogenic hAl defects. Finally, no cellular responses were observed with the respirable fraction of the processed powder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth Sciences, Università di Firenze, Firenze, Italy; Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources (CNR-IGG), Florence, Italy. Electronic address: francesco.dibenedetto@unifi.it.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Benedetto
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Università degli studi di Torino, Torino, Italy; "G. Scansetti" Interdepartmental Center for Studies on Asbestos and other Toxic Particulates, Università degli studi di Torino, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gazzano
authors.affiliation: "G. Scansetti" Interdepartmental Center for Studies on Asbestos and other Toxic Particulates, Università degli studi di Torino, Torino, Italy; Department of Chemistry, Università degli studi di Torino, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Maura
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tomatis
authors.affiliation: "G. Scansetti" Interdepartmental Center for Studies on Asbestos and other Toxic Particulates, Università degli studi di Torino, Torino, Italy; Department of Chemistry, Università degli studi di Torino, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Turci
authors.affiliation: Institute for Chemical and Physical processes (CNR-IPCF), Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Luca A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Pardi
authors.affiliation: Institute for Chemical and Physical processes (CNR-IPCF), Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bronco
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Università di Firenze, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fornaciai
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Università di Firenze, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Innocenti
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources (CNR-IGG), Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Giordano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Montegrossi
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Università di Firenze, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muniz Miranda
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Sciences, Università di Padova, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Alfonso
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zoleo
authors.affiliation: Health Agency of Florence, Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Capacci
authors.affiliation: "G. Scansetti" Interdepartmental Center for Studies on Asbestos and other Toxic Particulates, Università degli studi di Torino, Torino, Italy; Department of Chemistry, Università degli studi di Torino, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Bice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fubini
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Università degli studi di Torino, Torino, Italy; "G. Scansetti" Interdepartmental Center for Studies on Asbestos and other Toxic Particulates, Università degli studi di Torino, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ghigo
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth Sciences, Università di Firenze, Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Romanelli
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004391:Dust; D007501:Iron; D016676:Macrophages, Alveolar / Q000187:drug effects*; D051379:Mice; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism; D011791:Quartz / Q000737:chemistry*; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000378:metabolism; D012822:Silicon Dioxide
chemical_list: D004391:Dust; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D011791:Quartz; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; D007501:Iron
keywords: Carbon coating; Cytotoxicity; EPR/ESEEM; Free radicals; Health effects; Hole and Al centres; Macrophages; NO; Quartz; ROS