The Caravan Rolls On

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68409/2/10.1177_107554707900100103.pd

Particulate oil shale inhalation and pulmonary inflammatory response in rats

This experiment detrimetal that long-term inhalation of shale dusts by rats elicits a limited inflammatory response in the lung less profound than that observed in animals exposed to equivalent levels of quartz alone. This observation suggests that organic and inorganic constituents of shale may provide a protective effect. The implications for fibrogenic disease are two-fold: (1) inhalation of oil shale dusts appeared to be less detriemtal than the inhalation of quartz along, and (2) there was no apparent synergistic action of quartz and the complex of organic materials present in shale. Animals exposed to shale dusts failed to develop any significant lung lesions, while all of the animals exposed to quartz developed granulomas and some frank fibrosis