Mortality of sea lions along the central California coast linked to a toxic diatom bloom.

Over 400 California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) died and many others displayed signs of neurological dysfunction along the central California coast during May and June 1998. A bloom of Pseudo-nitzschia australis (diatom) was observed in the Monterey Bay region during the same period. This bloom was associated with production of domoic acid (DA), a neurotoxin that was also detected in planktivorous fish, including the northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax), and in sea lion body fluids.

Clustered Outbreak of Adverse Reactions to a Salsa Containing High Levels of Sulfites.

Six patients came to our attention in the Sacramento, CA area who developed cough or asthma after the ingestion of one brand (Brand 1) of refrigerated Mexican-style salsa, labelled "fresh". These patients had consumed other brands previously, not necessarily sulfited, but noted cough or asthma only in relation to consumption of this brand. Patients 1 and 2 developed reproducible severe cough and throat tightness after ingestion.

Effects of sulfur dioxide or ammonium sulfate exposure, alone or combined, for 4 or 8 months on normal and elastase-impaired rats.

Normal and lung-impaired rats were compared after exposure to SO2 and/or (NH4)2SO4 for 4 or 8 months, or for 8 months plus 3 months recovery. Young adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were pretreated intratracheally with either physiologic saline (normal lungs) or porcine pancreatic elastase (impaired lungs). Rats from each pretreatment group were exposed to filtered air (control), to SO2 (1 ppm) or (NH4)2SO4 (0.

Pulmonary function in elastase-treated guinea pigs and rats exposed to ammonium sulfate or ammonium nitrate aerosols.

Three weeks following intratracheal instillations of elastase dissolved in saline, or saline alone, guinea pigs and rats were exposed for 5 or 20 days, 6 hr/day, 5 days/week to filtered room air, 1 mg/m3 ammonium sulfate [NH4)2SO4) or 1 mg/m3 ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) aerosols. Pulmonary function evaluations conducted in guinea pigs showed no detrimental effects of (NH4)2SO4 or NH4NO3 exposure and very little effect of elastase treatment. Lung function changes in elastase-treated rats were consistent with a condition of experimentally induced pulmonary emphysema.

Experimental pulmonary emphysema induced in the rat by intratracheally administered elastase: morphogenesis.

Emphysema was produced experimentally in rats by administration of porcine pancreatic elastase at dose levels of 75, 100, 125, and 150 units elastase activity/100 g body wt. All doses studied were equally effective in producing emphysema. Dose levels of over 75 units activity/100 g offered no advantage in terms of degree or severity of emphysema produced; however, such doses exacerbated hemorrhage and edema, resulting in relatively high post-instillation mortality.

Pulmonary toxicity of inhaled coal liquid aerosols (boiling range 230-450 degrees C).

The biological activity of materials produced in the direct liquefaction of coal is being assessed by a variety of test systems. In this study, the pulmonary toxicity of process solvent (PS) from the solvent refined coal-I (SRC-I) process was determined by histamine aerosol challenge tests and pulmonary function and morphologic evaluations. Guinea pigs inhaled aerosols of PS (boiling range, 230 to 450 degrees C) for 6 hr/day, 5 day/week, for up to 12 days in three different experiments.

Clinical and pathological effects of cigarette smoke exposure in beagle dogs.

To compare the clinical and pathological effects of high and low nicotine cigarette smoke 12 young adult male beagles were separated into four equal groups and exposed to smoke from high (4.6 mg) or low (1.4 mg) nicotine cigarettes, administered in six or 12 cigarettes per day.