Publications

In a follow-up study to previous research, Dr. Mercer and colleagues at Duke University exposed three groups of rats continuously for six weeks to 2 or 6 ppm nitric oxide (NO) or to filtered air to learn more about the toxicity of NO so as to compare it with two other important oxidants, ozone and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). At the end of the exposure period he used an electron microscope to measure the number of holes in the alveolar septa and to observe other structural changes, such as in the surface area and the number and type of other abnormalities in the alveolar septa.

A Special Report of the Institute's Diesel Epidemiology Expert Panel. Although epidemiologic data have been used generally to identify the hazards associated with exposure to diesel exhaust, questions remain as to whether the human data can be used to develop reliable estimates of the magnitude of any risk for lung cancer (that is, through quantitative risk assessment [QRA]), and whether new research efforts could provide any additional data needed. In response to such issues, the Health Effects Institute initiated the Diesel Epidemiology Project in 1998.

Dr. Kleeberger and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University compared ozone-induced inflammation, epithelial cell injury, and epithelial cell proliferation (a marker of cell injury) in three types of mice: mice with a normal content of mast cells, mutant mice without mast cells, and mutant mice whose mast cells were repleted by a bone marrow transplant from normal mice. Each group of mice was exposed to clean air or to ozone for varying lengths of time.

Drs. Douglas Dockery at the Harvard School of Public Health and C. Arden Pope III at Brigham Young University speculated that exposure to PM might lead to a transient drop in blood oxygenation, which might have serious consequences in humans with heart or lung problems. The investigators designed a study to increase the possibility of observing PM effects by testing a potentially at-risk group (the elderly) at a time of year that historically had experienced relatively high levels of PM (the winter).