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Aerosol Inhalation: Recent Research Frontiers pp 165–173Cite as

Effects of Ultrafine Particles in the Lung and Potential Relevance to Environmental Particles

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Abstract

A number of epidemiological studies has been published over the past 5 years which reported an association between low ambient particle concentration (< 100 μg/m3) and acute morbidity and even mortality in the elderly. Since larger particles above ~ 0.3 μm cannot explain such dramatic effects we hypothesize that ultrafine particles (< 50 nm) present in the urban atmosphere at high number concentrations may be causally involved. We have evaluated this hypothesis by using model ultrafine particles of Teflon® fume with diameters of 10–26 nm. These particles when inhaled by rats proved to be extremely toxic, leading to severe hemorrhagic pulmonary edema and even death at short-exposure durations (10–30 minutes) and particle number concentration of l–5×l05 particles/cm3. The respective calculated mass concentrations are in the range of 30–60 μg/m3. We conclude that certain ultrafine particles when inhaled as singlet particles can be highly toxic and that there is a need to study more closely environmentally occurring ultrafine particles.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Medicine Rochester, The University of Rochester, NY, Rochester, 14642, USA

    G. Oberdörster

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  1. G. Oberdörster
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    J. C. M. Marijnissen

  2. Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

    L. Gradoń

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© 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Oberdörster, G. (1996). Effects of Ultrafine Particles in the Lung and Potential Relevance to Environmental Particles. In: Marijnissen, J.C.M., Gradoń, L. (eds) Aerosol Inhalation: Recent Research Frontiers. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1694-4_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1694-4_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7259-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1694-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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