The paper reported that sulfite was used to act on pulmonary macrophages (PM). It was found that the activity of arginase in PM obviously dropped, which was relateded to the concentration of sulfite. However, after sulfite were removed, the enzyme activity rose gradually. The decrease of arginase activity influenced the tumoricidal capacity of PM. The authors suggested that decrease of the enzyme activity caused by sulfite was due to oxidation by HSO_3~- and lipid peroxidation by free radicals.