Polluted air makes lungs more vulnerable to ozone damage
The researchers studied how exposure to different air pollutants affects how the lungs absorb ozone. They had healthy young people inhale ozone, nitrogen dioxide, or sulfur dioxide for 2 hours on separate days. They found that ozone exposure decreased ozone absorption in the lungs, while nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide exposure increased it. This happened because the other pollutants made more substances available for ozone to react with.