An animal exposure system using ultrasonic nebulizer that generates well controlled aerosols from liquids

Various aerosol generators have been developed for animal inhalation experiments and the performance tests of measuring instruments and respirators. It has been, however, difficult to generate aerosols from an aqueous solution or suspension keeping the concentration and particle size distribution constant for a long time. Resolving such difficulties, the present study developed an animal exposure system that generates well-controlled and stable aerosols from liquids. The exposure system consists of an aerosol generator using ultrasonic nebulizer, a mixing chamber and an exposure chamber. The validity of this system was confirmed in the generation of NiCl2 and TiO2 aerosol from solution and suspension, respectively. The concentration levels of NiCl2 aerosol were kept at 3.2 mg/m3 and 0.89 mg/m3 for 5 hours with good coefficients of variation (CVs) of 2.5% and 1.7%, respectively. For TiO2 aerosol, the concentration levels of 1.59 mg/m3 and 0.90 mg/m3 were kept for 5 hours with small CVs of 1.3% and 2.0%, respectively. This exposure system could be sufficiently used for inhalation experiments with even high toxic aerosols such as NiCl2 because a momentary high concentration possibly affects results and an extremely stable concentration is required.