Marked lethality of rats in combined exposure to carbon monoxide and diethyldithiocarbamate

Simultaneous exposure of rats to carbon monoxide (COHb 60%) and diethyldithiocarbamate (i.p. 0.5 g/kg), a superoxide dismutase inhibitor, for 2.5 h resulted in a death of sixteen out of twenty-three rats. No rats treated with saline and exposed to CO died (0/26). There were no fatalities among the group of rats injected with the diethyldithiocarbamate solution and exposed to ambient air (0/16).