The Science of "Seeing" Your Breath
And How the EPA is Using this to Detect Changes in the Body
Feb 3, 2009
To kids, one of the best things about winter was being able to "see" their breath. To an elementary school age child, this is an exciting idea, and one only outdone by making snowmen and catching snowflakes on the tongue. Therefore, a scientist's more mundane explanation of how the "breath" being seen is actually water vapors in the exhalation that are warm and humid and when those vapors meet the cold air outside, a fog is formed and that's what is actually visible. However boring that might be to a child, scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency are asserting that perhaps there might be more benefit to this exhaling than condensation, temperature, and a moment of entertainment.
Breath as a Diagnostic Tool
Bronchoscopy is a medical technique used to view the inside of the lungs. It allows doctors to check for tumors, inflammation, or the effects of pollutants on the lungs. Usually administered through the nose or mouth, it costs time and money and a slight bit of discomfort to the patient to perform. The EPA's Office of Research and Development, on the other hand, has been studying biomarker research; which, in a nutshell, is a new way for scientists to study what air toxins can do to the lungs. Says an EPA biologist Michael Madden on the EPA's website, "The promise of these biomarkers is that we can sample them non-invasively in the field at sites of interest where people are exposed to pollutants."
How does it work?
The aforementioned "viewable breath" is full of gases like carbon dioxide, but what might be surprising to know is that what are also in those water vapors are different bits of cell particles that may have been inhaled as well as DNA. When exhaled, it turns into "exhaled breath condensate" and can be caught and studied. In this way, it can be deduced if someone has been exposed to an air pollutant, or, in the EPA's case, what the long term effects of exposure could be on the lungs.
Additionally, analytical chemist Joachim Pleil says, "We can measure the gases absorbed in the EBC fluid with sensitive analytical chemical methods to investigate rapid changes in metabolism, and we can also use new protein and DNA analyses to determine longer term effects such as chronic inflammation of the lungs."
So the next time a winter wonderland happens to be where the kids - or the parents - find themselves, "seeing" their breath might take on a whole new meaning.
Sources:
Science That Takes Your Breath Away
