Publications

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).

Daniel L. Albritton and Daniel S. Greenbaum, cochairs. Report of the PM Measurements Research Workshop, Chapel Hill NC, July 22 and 23, 1998. Aeronomy Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, CO, and Health Effects Institute, Cambridge, MA.

Dr. John Peters and colleagues of the University of Southern California School of Medicine compared the lung function, respiratory symptoms, activity levels, and bronchodilator use of 10- to 12-year-old healthy, asthmatic, and wheezy children. They conducted the study in Southern California during mid-spring (when ozone levels were expected to be low) and late summer (when ozone levels were expected to be high).