Archives of toxicology
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Archives of toxicology · Feb 2010
Assessment of low dose effects of acute sulphur dioxide exposure on the airways using non-invasive methods.
Sulphur dioxide (SO(2)) is an important environmental and workplace air pollutant. Some studies demonstrate that subjects without adaptation respond to SO(2) up to 10 ppm with irritative effects on the airways. The aim of our study was to assess irritative effects of SO(2) up to 2 ppm on the airways using non-invasive methods like exhaled breath condensate (EBC), nasal lavage fluid (NALF) and exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO). ⋯ Further cellular and soluble parameters measured were not significantly affected. Our results show that 4 h SO(2) exposure up to 2.0 ppm did not induce significant changes in the biomarker composition of the EBC and NALF when compared with clean air or with pre-samples of the same subject. Therefore our data suggest that acute low dose SO(2) exposure in not adapted subjects did not induce airway irritation or/and inflammation measured under these conditions.