Air pollution has been associated with an increased incidence of respiratory disease. However, significant differences may exist between air pollution levels measured at conventional fixed monitoring stations and actual levels inhaled by a subject. Furthermore, studies of effects of air pollution might best be done using asthmatics as study subjects, since they have irritable airways. This is a preliminary report of a study using a control and asthmatic group in which effects of air pollution are assessed by symptom and medication diaries and simple pulmonary function tests.