摘要：The Norwegian-Russian border area is polluted by sulphur dioxide (SO 2 ) emitted from a Russian nickel smelter in the city of Nikel. We studied the effects of daily variations in SO, on the lung function levels of people on both sides of the border. A cross-sectional population-based study was performed among adults in Sor-Varanger, Norway (n=3438) and Nikel, Russia (n= 1613). All subjects were assigned 24h mean SO 2 concentrations for their day of screening and the day before on basis of residency. The SO ; -con-centrations were compared with the daily recordings of forced expiratory volume in one second expressed as percentage of the predicted value (FEV 1 % predicted). In Sor-Varanger, no significant associations between SO, and FEV 1 % predicted were found. In Nikel, FEV 1 % predicted was exceeded non-systematically in some of the exposure categories (10-50, 50-90, or >90 μg/m 3 ) compared to the reference exposure group (0-10 μg/m 1 ). In conclusion, neither of the study populations suffered from a measurable reduction in lung function when SO 2 increased above the reference level.
