| Regional Biophysics Meeting 2005, March 16-20, Zreče, Slovenia | [MembBiophys] |
One hundred years after the discovery of ozone, atmospheric chemists became aware that human activities (mainly production of nitrogen oxides) have caused the concentrations of ozone in surfacial air to increase, and that this trend continues. This increase engenders much concern because, in the entire history of Earth, life has never experienced such elevated ozone concentrations for such long periods. Recent communications concerned with the high mortality related to air pollution in the UK and the Netherlands during the 2003 heat wave have linked it to particulate matter and ozone concentrations. These findings raise the specter that high oxidant levels may well have an important impact on life. The situation is somewhat analogous to that of 2000 million years ago, when the atmospheric oxygen started to accumulate and certain anaerobic life forms began to use oxygen for "breathing" and energy production. Oxygen was toxic for anaerobic life forms, much as ozone is now for existing aerobes. Actually, oxygen itself or, more particularly, some of its metabolic products (e.g., peroxides, oxyradicals and superoxide radical) may be detrimental for living organisms. These organisms, however, have evolved defense and repair mechanisms and they use antioxidants to handle the treat. Could it be that present life forms will develop also similar but more efficient defense and repair mechanisms for ozone, much as already exist for oxidants, uv and even some level of ionizing radiation (e.g. Deinococcus radiodurans). Recent papers on possible ozone production and ozone functions within the human body engender such suspicions.
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