Chronic Inhalation Studies in Mice: I. Facilities and Equipment for “Nose-Only” Exposure to Cigarette Smoke

Facilities and equipment are described for large-scale, long-term “nose-only” inhalation exposure of mice to whole cigarette smoke. Experimental procedures and equipment were designed to provide the mice with exposure conditions where [1] the lung was the major target organ for the smoke, [2] large quantities of fresh, whole cigarette smoke could be generated, [3] large numbers of animals could be exposed at one time, [4] routine, daily exposures could be given over a major portion of the lifetime of the animal, [5] monitoring and documentation of the quantity of smoke presented to the animals was provided during each exposure session, [6] safety systems were provided that assured exposure of the animals to smoke only under pre-set exposure conditions, and [7] cigarette smoke was generated under conditions where factors, such as cigarette type, smoke aerosol concentration and smoke particle size, were controlled.