Oxygen Consumption and Carbon Dioxide Excretion of Guinea Pigs under Basal Conditions on Air and Exposed for Four Hours to 3% CO2 and 21% O2.

摘要

For a comparison of acute and chronic toxicity of CO2 it is needful to know the threshold of CO2 concentration which affects the basal metabolism. Barbour and Seevers (1) exposed rats to various CO2 concentrations and did not find changes in O2 consumption up to 5% CO2, Kohlschmidt (2) reported 10% increase in O2 consumption of humans while breathing CO2 mixtures of 2-3%. This value was obtained after deduction of the O2 consumption related to increased work of hte respiratory muscles. Loeschke and Weigmann (3) confirmed these results. They found an increase in O2 consumption in humans during exposure to CO2 for periods up to three hours. (js)