Health Effects of Acute Exposure to Air Pollution

Part I: Healthy and Asthmatic Subjects Exposed to Diesel Exhaust Stephen T Holgate, Thomas Sandström, Anthony J Frew, Nikolai Stenfors, Charlotta Nördenhall, Sundeep Salvi, Anders Blomberg, Ragnberth Helleday, and Margaretha Södenberg

Part II: Healthy Subjects Exposed to Concentrated Ambient Particles Stephen T Holgate, Robert B Devlin, Susan J Wilson, and Anthony J Frew Dr.

Stephen Holgate and his colleagues at the University of Southampton proposed that inflammatory changes in lung fluids and blood from humans exposed to PM were related to the chemical composition of the particles. He obtained samples from two human studies in which participants were exposed to diesel exhaust and concentrated ambient particles (CAPs). At a Swedish laboratory 25 healthy and 12 asthmatic participants were exposed to diesel exhaust or filtered air on separate days. At a US laboratory, 12 healthy participants were exposed to filtered air and 30 different healthy participants were exposed to a range of CAPs concentrations. All participants underwent bronchoscopy to obtain lung tissues and fluids to analyze inflammatory markers, including numbers of specific white blood cells, expression of activation markers, and levels of cytokines in addition to analysis of lung function, lung fluids, and blood.