The most characteristic toxic effect of exposure to relatively high-levels of O3 is pulmonary edema, a leakage of fluid into the gas-exchange parts of the lung.
This effect was seen at concentrations only slightly above that observed in pollution in Los Angeles, California.
Humans and animals have been shows to develop tolerance to O3 Tolerance refers to increased capacity of an organism that has been per-exposed to a chemical agent, such as an oxidant, to resist the effects of later exposures to ordinarily lethal, or otherwise injurious, doses of the same agent. For example, rodents exposed to 0.3 ppm o3 would become tolerant to subsequent exposures of several ppm o3, a dose that would produce massive pulmonary edema exposed for the first time. Some human subjects exposed to 0.3 ppm o3 at intervals of approximately one day showed diminished reactivity after exposures. This response is termed adaptation.
Biological effects
A large volume of literature has been published describing the biochemical effects of
o3. Examples of the reported effects include.
reaction with proteins and amino acid
reaction with lipids
formation of free radical
oxidation of sulfhydryl compounds and pyridine nucleotides
production of more or less non specific stress, with the release of histamine