Carbon Monoxide

Inhalation Toxicology Methods: The Generation and Characterization of Exposure Atmospheres and Inhalational Exposures

“…Causal inferences could be established in the absence of mechanistic understanding by consistent differences in response according to intensity of exposure to a specific agent, a mixture, or a marker of the mixture. Specific toxicants were associated with specific adverse effects, such as in occupational and environmental exposures to lead (Pb) associated with neuropathy (Fischbein and Hu, ; Grant, ), mercury (Hg) associated with neurotoxicity (Goldman, ; Grandjean and Nielsen, ), carbon monoxide (CO) as a cause of hypoxia and ischemic heart disease (Kleinman, ), benzene (C 6 H 6 ) as a cause of hepatic and bone marrow defects and of leukemia (Goldstein and Witz, ), silica (Si) associated with silicosis (Jalloul and Banks, ), and asbestos fibers associated with asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma (Rom, ; Lippmann, ). Similarly, for some general population exposures to complex mixtures, it was shown that there were exposure‐intensity related excesses of lung cancer and cardiac mortality in humans for passive cigarette smoke exposures (Samet et al., ) and for coal smoke–related community air pollution (Thurston et al., ), although, in these cases, the specific constituents within the mixtures that caused the effects are not yet adequately known.…”