OBJECTIVES To examine contextual and individual demographical predictors of smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke (SHS) in a tobacco-cultivating rural area of southwest China. METHODS A cross-sectional survey of 4070 consenting individuals aged 18 years or more was conducted in 2010. Information on demographical characteristics, tobacco smoking status and SHS exposure were obtained by a s...

OBJECTIVE The study group for sick house syndrome (SHS) in Japan has proposed the classifications, definition and diagnostic criteria for chemical-associated SHS. We compared the physicians' diagnoses to the diagnoses based on the patients' interview sheets including diagnostic criteria only. METHODS We examined 287 patients with complaints of SHS-like symptoms. We also checked determinations...

INTRODUCTION The aim of this paper was to investigate the association between childhood and adulthood exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) and depression, panic attack, and generalized anxiety disorder among adults in the United States over a 10-year period. METHODS Data were drawn from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) Waves 1 and 2 (N=2053). Self-reported childhood and adul...

Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure is a potentially preventable environmental pollutant that remains a major global public health concern. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used to assess secondhand smoke exposure, knowledge, attitudes, and avoidance behaviors, as well as policy agreements related to SHS among young adult university students in the northern part of Jordan. A convenience sam...

AIM To evaluate the short health scale (SHS), a new, simple, four-part visual analogue scale questionnaire that is designed to assess the impact of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), in Korean-speaking patients with IBD. METHODS The SHS was completed by 256 patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Individual SHS items were correl...

BACKGROUND Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure causes premature death and disease. Eliminating smoking in indoor spaces is the only way to fully protect nonsmokers from SHS exposure, and also contributes to helping smokers quit smoking. Primary health care providers can play an important role in advising nonsmoking patients to avoid SHS exposure, cautioning current smokers against exposing others t...

BACKGROUND The adverse effects of tobacco abuse on cardiovascular outcomes are well-known. However, the impact of passive smoke exposure on angina status and therapeutic response is less well-established. We examined the impact of second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure on symptomatic improvement in patients with chronic ischemic coronary disease undergoing enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP). ...

OBJECTIVES To determine whether secondhand smoke (SHS) induces pulmonary artery endothelial dysfunction, and whether dietary L-arginine supplementation is preventive. BACKGROUND SHS causes coronary and peripheral arterial endothelial dysfunction. METHODS The effects of L-arginine supplementation (2.25% solution) and SHS (10 weeks) on pulmonary vascular reactivity were examined in 32 rabbits...

I n the 1960s, the US Surgeon General and American Heart Association issued reports warning of the dangers of smoking on fatal coronary artery disease. Since those early publications , 32 US Surgeon General reports and thousands of studies have been released exposing the harmful effects of cigarette smoking on cardiovascular health. Yet, more than a half a century later, the toxic legacy contin...

Secondhand smoke (SHS) contains more than 50 carcinogens. SHS exposure is responsible for an estimated 3,000 lung cancer deaths and more than 35,000 coronary heart disease deaths among never smokers in the United States each year, and for lower respiratory infections, asthma, sudden infant death syndrome, and chronic ear infections among children. Even short-term exposures to SHS, such as those...