Details:

Alternative Title:
Environ Health
Publisher's site:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-7-10
Personal Author:
Ferdinands, Jill M. ; Crawford, Carol A. Gotway ; Greenwald, Roby ; Van Sickle, David ; Hunter, Eric ; ... More +
Ferdinands, Jill M. ; Crawford, Carol A. Gotway ; Greenwald, Roby ; Van Sickle, David ; Hunter, Eric ; Teague, W. Gerald Less -
Description:
Background

Vigorous outdoors exercise during an episode of air pollution might cause airway inflammation. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of vigorous outdoor exercise during peak smog season on breath pH, a biomarker of airway inflammation, in adolescent athletes.

Methods

We measured breath pH both pre- and post-exercise on ten days during peak smog season in 16 high school athletes engaged in daily long-distance running in a downwind suburb of Atlanta. The association of post-exercise breath pH with ambient ozone and particulate matter concentrations was tested with linear regression.

Results

We collected 144 pre-exercise and 146 post-exercise breath samples from 16 runners (mean age 14.9 years, 56% male). Median pre-exercise breath pH was 7.58 (interquartile range: 6.90 to 7.86) and did not change significantly after exercise. We observed no significant association between ambient ozone or particulate matter and post-exercise breath pH. However both pre- and post-exercise breath pH were strikingly low in these athletes when compared to a control sample of 14 relatively sedentary healthy adults and to published values of breath pH in healthy subjects.

Conclusion

Although we did not observe an acute effect of air pollution exposure during exercise on breath pH, breath pH was surprisingly low in this sample of otherwise healthy long-distance runners. We speculate that repetitive vigorous exercise may induce airway acidification.


Subject:
[+]
Adolescent
Air Pollutants
Breath Tests
Environmental Monitoring
Female
Humans
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Inhalation Exposure
Male
Prospective Studies
Reference Values
Research
Running
Urban Population

Source:
Environ Health. 2008; 7:10.
Document Type:
Journal Article
Funding:
5 U48 DP000043-02/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHS/United States
Place as Subject:
Georgia
Collection(s):
CDC Public Access
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:444289deda07e26847e641b4f47abe31ea90597293e27f0191967dfd2cd78ad5
File Type:

Supporting Files

• 	license.txt	txt
  	1476-069X-7-10-1.gif	gif
  	1476-069X-7-10-1.jpg	jpeg
  	1476-069X-7-10-2.gif	gif
  	1476-069X-7-10-2.jpg	jpeg
  	1476-069X-7-10-3.gif	gif
  	1476-069X-7-10-3.jpg	jpeg
  	1476-069X-7-10-S1.doc	doc
  	1476-069X-7-10.nxml	txt

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