Pulmonary deposition of a fly ash aerosol by inhalation.

Disease-free Wistar male rats were exposed to fly ash at an average concentration of 73 mg/m3 for 23 hours per day, 5 days per week for one month. The aerosols were characterized with respect to both physical and chemical properties. The exposed rats were sacrificed to measure the lung burden of fly ash. The lung burden of fly ash was estimated by the measurement of aluminium content in the lung, the average being 9.4 mg in exposed rats. The apparant deposition fraction was 1.8%.