Ambient air pollution, including black carbon, entails a serious public health risk because of its carcinogenic potential and as climate pollutant. Inhalation of fossil fuel-derived particulate matter (PM) is associated with a wide range of nonpulmonary health effects. Based on the WHO report of 2015 the European health annual costs of air pollution have been estimated to US$ 1.6 trillion. Although recent studies strongly suggest that particle translocation in biological systems is biologically plausible, they do not prove that ambient fossil fuel-derived carbonaceous nanoparticles enter the human systemic circulation in real-life conditions. We developed a novel method to detect carbonaceous nanoparticles in the urine of healthy children. The ERCfunded ENVIRONAGE project already made a strong case for promoting urinary carbon detection to practice by demonstrating its usefulness as individual long-term exposure marker. Taking advantage of white-light generation by carbonaceous nanoparticles under femtosecond pulsed laser illumination, we demonstrated the presence of these particles in urine and its relation with the external environmental air pollution (Saenen et al. Am J Respir & Crit Care Med) as well as the transfer to the fetus by showing black carbon particle accumulation in placental tissue (Bove et al. Nature Communications). INCALO (INternal black CArbon LOading) paved the way for a non-invasive assessment of long-term individual exposure to one of the most toxic air pollutants, black carbon, and will be useful in epidemiological investigations, biomonitoring studies as well as in occupational settings. The socio-economic impact of our technology was further demonstrated by measurements in Children of Rybnik. Rybnik is a European hot spot with air pollution levels due to coal power plants for electricity and domestic heating. There is a high societal need for adequate internal exposure markers allowing reduction of exposure misclassification, which may lead to a better protection of the most vulnerable segments in society, such as children. For this, we tested for the first time ever black carbon particles in urine of children in Strasbourg and Rybnik. In general we observe a 5 fold higher carbon load in urine of children living in Rybnik compared with children living in Strasbourg. The results were discussed at EU parlement in the hearing on December 11th 2020.
