Experimental studies on human health effects of air pollutants. IV. Short-term physiological and clinical effects of nitrogen dioxide exposure.

Adult male volunteers were exposed to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at 1.0 ppm in purified air under conditions simulating ambient photochemical smog exposures (2-hr exposure with intermittent light exercise at 31 degrees C and 35% relative humidity). Sham exposures to purified air alone served as controls. Exposure effects were assessed by pulmonary physiological tests and by a standardized clinical evaluation. No statistically physiological changes attributable to NO2 exposure were found except for a marginal loss in forced vital capacity after exposure on two successive days (1.5% mean decrease, P less than .05). Reported respiratory and other symptoms were slightly increased with exposure as compared to control, but the change was not significant. Short-term toxicity of NO2 at peak ambient concentrations appears to be substantially less than that of ozone in healthy people, but adverse NO2 effects in diseased people or in long-term exposures cannot be ruled out at present.