Introduction
Human skin, as the largest organ in the body, is defined as “a protective covering for the surface of the body” and comprises of two distinct layers, the epidermis and the dermis (Gosling, et al. 2017). In a world of pollution, our skin must weather the damages we bring. In this blog post, I aim to show how Ozone affects us in more unusual ways than we normally think.
What is Ozone?
Outside, Ozone or O3 is a major component of photochemical smog, which is generated majorly by motor vehicles due to the chemical reactions between the nitrogen oxides reacting with sunlight and heat in turn creating Ozone (Hill 2010). Indoors, Ozone is also generated through our use of a photocopier (Wisthaler and Weschler 2010), or even intentionally, through items such as an air ionizer as a supposed means for healthier air (Jenkins and Zhang 2017).
Effect of Ozone on humans
Ozone is highly reactive to the natural oils that our skin produces. A study by Wisthaler and Weschler found that the reaction between Ozone and our skin oils produces a cocktail of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC). When Ozone reacts with Squalene (an unsaturated compound produced by the sebum), it eventually breaks down into acetone, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one (6-MHO) and 2,6-imethyl-2,6- undecadien-10-one (geranyl acetone) (Wisthaler and Weschler 2010). Both 6-MHO and geranyl acetone are skin irritants (National Center for Biotechnology Information 2023). A study by Zeng et al., found 17 more products (a total of 19 products) that were formed by this ozonolysis on top of the two mentioned. These are shown in table 1.
Table 1: Compounds generated by reactions between sebum and Ozone. Source: (Zeng, et al. 2020)
The production of these VOCs as a result of its reaction to skin oil presents other health risks. For example, the dicarbonyls generated are respiratory irritants (Wisthaler and Weschler 2010). Additionally, the study found that these generated VOCs are more severe in their health impacts in an indoor setting as compared to outdoors. This presents a problem, particularly to individuals who may spend an excessive amount of time indoors, who would intake such chemicals.
While skin and respiratory irritants might seem like not a very serious problem that could be ignored, these irritations should be taken more seriously. For example, acetone-induced dermatitis (inflammation of the skin) is a result of acetone dissolving away the skin’s natural oils, removing this protective barrier, and rendering it vulnerable to infections and thus inflammation (Zhai, Leow and Maibach 1998).
Lung irritation, while appearing as minor initially, can deteriorate over time. Dicarbonyl irritates the epithelium lining in the bronchioles, bronchi, trachea and nasal airways. This creates lesions and subsequent scarring of the affected tissue in as low concentrations as 50 ppm (Hubbs, et al. 2019). The scarring of such tissue was found to be due to Dicarbonyl’s damaging effects on DNA due to its high reactivity, cell injury due to oxidative stresses and modification of essential proteins in cells (Hubbs, et al. 2019).
The potential harms caused by the interactions between Ozone and the naturally produced oils in our skin, ironically designed to protect us, show how we need to treat pollution seriously, for example, by reducing the amount of Ozone created, such as reducing the usage of motor vehicles and not intentionally generating Ozone using air ionizers. This blog post only covers Ozone, yet, there are plenty more pollutants that harm us in greater ways.
Bibliography
Gosling, J. A., P. F. Harris, J. R. Humpherson, I. Whitmore, and P. L. T. Wilan. 2017. “Basic Anatomical Concepts Chapter 1.” In Human Anatomy, Color Atlas and Textbook, by J. A. Gosling, 1 – 23. Elsevier. ISBN: 9780723438281.
Hill, Marquita K. 2010. Understanding Environmental Pollution. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-511-90782-1.
Hubbs, Ann F., Kathleen Kreiss, kristin J. Cummings, kara L. Fluharty, Ryan O’ Connell, Allison Cole, Tiana M. Dodd, et al. 2019. “Flavorings-Related Lung Disease: A Brief Review and New Mechanistic Data.” Toxicologic Pathology (Sage) 47 (8): 1012–1026. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0192623319879906.
Jenkins, P. L., and Q. Zhang. 2017. “Evaluation of ozone emissions and exposures from consumer products and home appliances.” Indoor Air (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd) 27 (2): 386 – 397. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.12307.
National Center for Biotechnology Information. 2023. PubChem Compound Summary for CID 1549778, Geranylacetone. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Geranylacetone.
—. 2023. PubChem Compound Summary for CID 9862, 6-Methyl-5-hepten-2-one. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/6-Methyl-5-hepten-2-one.
Wisthaler, Armin, and Charles J. Weschler. 2010. “Reactions of ozone with human skin lipids: Sources of carbonyls, dicarbonyls and hydroxycarbonyls in indoor air.” Proceedings of the national academy of sciences (PNAS) 107 (15): 1 – 8. doi:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0904498106.
Zeng, Jiafa, Majda Mekic, Xin Xu, Gwendal Loisel, Zhen Zhou, Sasho Gligorovski, and Xue Li. 2020. “A Novel Insight into the Ozone−Skin Lipid Oxidation Products Observed by Secondary Electrospray Ionization High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry.” Environmental Science & Technology (ACS Publications) 54: 13478 – 13487. doi:https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c05100.
Zhai, H., Y-H Leow, and H. I. Maibach. 1998. “Human barrier recovery after acute acetone perturbation: an irritant dermatitis model.” Clinical and Experimental Dermatology (Blackwell) 23: 11 – 13. doi:https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2230.1998.00310.x.
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