Small airways offer 1/4th of the total airways resistance. Disease of small airways results from exposure to tobacco smoke, mineral dust, air-pollutants, and viral infections. It may also be associated with connective tissue disorders or may follow bone marrow, lung, or heart-lung transplantation. The pulmonary function tests are deranged late in the disease and the damage done is irreversible....

OBJECTIVE To investigate differences in clinical features between tobacco smoke-induced and biomass fuel-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODS We retrospectively analyzed 206 patients with COPD caused by exposure to tobacco smoke and 81 cases of COPD caused by exposure to biomass fuels who received treatment in our hospital between 2011 March and 2014 March. Difference...

background one of the requirements of the osun state smoke-free legislation is to ensure smoke-free enclosed and partially enclosed workplaces. this survey was conducted to assess the knowledge and attitude of workers in indoor bars, beer parlors and discotheques to smoke-free legislation in general and the osun state smoke-free law in particular.   methods a convenience sampling of 36 hospital...

Background Exposure to tobacco smoke increases the risk for several adverse health effects in children including wheeze, asthma, and asthma exacerbation [1,2]. Accurately assessing tobacco smoke exposure is important for understanding and preventing these health effects. Questionnaires are a flexible and relatively inexpensive method of assessing exposure, but biomarkers of tobacco smoke exposu...

BACKGROUND The effects of in utero tobacco smoke exposure on childhood respiratory health have been investigated, and outcomes have been inconsistent. OBJECTIVE To determine if in utero tobacco smoke exposure is associated with childhood persistent asthma in Mexican, Puerto Rican, and black children. PATIENTS AND METHODS There were 295 Mexican, Puerto Rican, and black asthmatic children, ag...

Cigarette smokers and those exposed to second hand smoke are more susceptible to life threatening infection than non-smokers. While much is known about the devastating effect tobacco exposure has on the human body, less is known about the effect of tobacco smoke on the commensal and commonly found pathogenic bacteria of the human respiratory tract, or human respiratory tract microbiome. Chronic...

BACKGROUND Animal studies and data from a single-center study suggest that tobacco smoke exposure may be a risk factor for precapillary pulmonary hypertension (PH). OBJECTIVE We aimed to survey tobacco smoke exposure in a large PH collective and to compare it with epidemiological data from healthy subjects. METHODS This is an international, multicenter, case-control study including patients...

There is evidence to suggest that exposure of pregnant women to tobacco smoke is related to higher childhood blood pressure in their offspring. It is not well known whether this association is set in utero or by shared postnatal environments. The objective of this study was to assess the association between tobacco smoke exposure of pregnant mothers and blood pressure and heart rate of their ne...

BACKGROUND Studies have identified that environmental tobacco smoke exposure is associated with sociodemographic factors such as age, sex, and socioeconomic status, but few studies have been conducted in South Korea. In this study, the authors investigated the extent of environmental tobacco smoke exposure and factors related in a nationally representative sample of Korean adults. METHODS The...

BACKGROUND The evaluation of infant meconium as a cumulative matrix of prenatal toxicant exposure requires comparison to established biomarkers of prenatal exposure. METHODS We calculated the frequency of detection and concentration of tobacco smoke metabolites measured in meconium (nicotine, cotinine, and trans-3'-hydroxycotinine concentrations) and three serial serum cotinine concentrations...