PSU Magazine Summer 1989

Chemistry professor Robert O'Brien cars pumping hydrocarbons into the at– mosphere. But another is what Califor– nians see as one of their most precious commodities: sunshine. It takes both to make smog. Sunshine reacts with the elements of industrialized life to make the air dirtier than in places with more cloud cover. A key in the chemical reaction is hydroxyl , or HO, and that is the focus of research being per– formed by PSU professor Robert O'Brien. Using two laser laboratories, one at the University and another in a mobile home that travels the state to take air samples, O'Brien and his colleagues measure levels of HO in the atmosphere - both in clean air and dirty air - and are using that in– formation to check the accuracy of models now in place that predict pollution levels. It is the only program of its kind in the world , and as such has attracted sizeable funding from NASA , the Environmental Protection Agency and National Science Foundation. (Continued on page 23) Toxins and membranes A s recently as May 15, pen– tachlorophenol was back in the news in a big way. "Toxic cleanup costs soaring for wood treatment wastes," read the headline in The Oregonian. It quoted Tom Miller of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality as saying the Northwest is riddled with wood preserving facilities which will cost millions of dollars to clean up. Pentachlorophenol (PCP) , one of the most widely used preservatives in the wood products industry, was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency for over- the-counter use in 1984, although it is still allowed in industry. It has been linked to birth defects, cancer and disorders of the liver, kidney and immune system. Toxic, yes. But in what way? What ex– actly do substances like PCP do to cells to throw off the way they function? ,_ ,;. .... t.,..., J~ I Finding that out has been the focus of a 15-year research project by Pavel Smej– tek, PSU physics professor and head of the Environmental Sciences and Resources program. Together with PSU researchers Shanru Wang, Arthur W. Barstad , Kwan Hsu and Arnold Pickar, Smejtek found that PCP upsets a number of important cell functions, and something that had previously been unknown: that those same cell membranes affect the chemical behavior of PCP itself. The research is important in that it is helping to define toxicity in physical and chemical terms, and is making scientists better informed about how cells work. Cells, the smallest structural units of living matter, are independent, functioning mechanisms that depend on a proper chemical and electrical balance. When the (Continued on page 23) Pavel Smejtek, physics professor and head of Environmental Sciences and Resources PSU 7