Exposure of the airways to air toxins initiates transient and reversible airway injury to both adults and young children. Repetitive exposures of children residing within high oxidant communities leads to impairment of lung growth and pulmonary function, and remodeling of airway epithelial tissues is also suggested to occur. In the completely normal/healthy airway, exposure to ozone (O3), a ubiquitous urban air pollutant, induces an inflammatory response that is characterized by increases in epithelial permeability, neutrophilic infiltration, and bronchial hyperreactivity. Inhalation by humans of the pleiotropic pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (Tnf) leads to the development of nearly identical responses: hyperresponsiveness of the bronchial airway (AHR), and neutrophil influx. Using controlled exposure to O3 in a laboratory setting, we have recently established a link between a genetic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of TNF gene (-308) and the development of AHR to methacholine within a 24 h time frame, post exposure to O3. In a healthy human study group (n=137) the presence of a common TNF (-308) SNP was found to confer susceptibility to an ambient concentration of O3 (220 ppb, and frequently attained in many cities of the US during the summer months): stratified for ethnicity, Caucasian subjects who were homozygotic (A/A) or heterozygotic (G/A) for the minor allele of the TNF (-308) SNP were 2-times as likely to develop sensitivity to methacholine after O3 as compared to subjects with the wild-type, major allele (G/G) haplotype.