Repeated Laboratory Ozone Exposures of Volunteer Los Angeles Residents: an Apparent Seasonal Variation in Response

Abstract

This study was intended to help explain individual differences in susceptibility to irritant effects of ozone (O₃), by determining whether prior ambient O3 exposures and/ or recent acute respiratory illness modified response to laboratory 03 exposures. Response was measured in terms of lung function changes and irritant symptoms. Initially, 59 adult volunteer Los Angeles area residents underwent screening exposures in spring, before the season of frequent high ambient O₃ levels. Unusually responsive and nonresponsive individuals (N = 12 and 13 respectively) underwentfollowup exposures in autumn (late in the high-O3 season) and in winter (low-O3 season). All exposures were to 0.18 ppm O3 for 2 hr with intermittent heavy exercise at 31° C and 35% relative humidity. Nonresponders tended to remain nonresponsive throughout. In fall, responders had lost much of their reactivity, as if they had "adapted" to summer ambient 03 exposures. They did not regain reactivity by winter. Clinical laboratory findings suggestive of acute respiratory illness did not appear to correlate with O₃ response. Eight responders and 9 nonresponders underwent another followup exposure in spring, about 1 yr after screening. By that time most responders had regained their reactivity; individual function changes were significantly correlated with changes 1 yr earlier. These results suggest that response to O3 is a persistent individual characteristic, but can be modified by repeated ambient exposures.