Design, operation and performance of whole body chambers for long-term aerosol exposure of large experimental animals

Abstract

Four large whole-body exposure chambers, 19 m 3 in volume, are available at this research centre for studies on the effect on lungs following long-term exposure to particulate air pollutants. Each chamber is designed to house up to five beagle dogs according to the floor space requirements for dogs, thus up to 20 dogs are available for one exposure experiment. Clean air is supplied by an air conditioning system with particle, charcoal and adsorbent filters. A horizontal air flow design provides uniform distribution of aerosol, temperature and relative humidity in the chambers with long-term stability. Data acquisition is fully automated. Alarms are available to warn of deviations from airflow settings and aerosol mass concentration. The design of the chambers and their performance during a 290 day exposure are described in this paper.