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Smoking increases asthma risk in rhinitis sufferers 

MedWire News: Cigarette smoking is an important independent risk factor for the development of new asthma cases in adults with allergic rhinitis, researchers report.

Writing in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Riccardo Polosa (University of Catania, Italy) and colleagues argue that this means "physicians have the responsibility to alert their patients with allergic rhinitis about the additional risk of asthma if they smoked and to engage in smoking cessation interventions."

Cigarette smoking has been reported to be associated with symptoms of chronic rhinitis, the authors explain, while rhinitis itself is an important risk factor for the development of asthma.

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• Smoking enhances risk of asthma among Austrian teenagers 

Austrian teenager smoke generally and therefore enhanced the risk of suffering asthma, the Austrian Society of Pneumology said in a research results released on Monday, a day before the World Asthma day.

"20 percent of the 15-year-old boys and 25 percent of the 15-year-old girls smoke daily," said the research, about 50 percent students in the vocational schools smoke. Teenager who never smoke are only around 20 percent.

The situation of teenagers who worked in gastronomy is particularly serious with a smoking rate of 70 percent, which mainly attribute to the negative influence from those smoking colleagues and guests.

Josef Riedler, an Austrian specialist on respiratory diseases in childhood and adolescence of Austrian Society of Pneumology, said passive smoking would lead to asthma

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Asthma and smoker's lung: dry airways play a key role 

Dry airways may not only play a central role in the development of the inherited lung disease cystic fibrosis, but also in much more common acquired chronic lung diseases such as asthma and smoker's lung, the cigarette smoke-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This is the conclusion reached by scientists at Heidelberg University Hospital under the direction of Assistant Professor Dr. Marcus Mall from the Department of Pediatrics at Heidelberg University Hospital and Professor Dr. Richard Boucher of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In animal studies, they found that insufficient hydration of the airway surfaces leads to pathologies typical of chronic obstructive lung diseases in humans.

Thus, these findings point to a new approach for the treatment of these diseases, which are listed by the World Health Organization WHO as the fourth leading cause of death world-wide. There are currently no causal therapies available for treating these diseases; only the symptoms such as shortness of breath and oxygen deficiency can be treated. The results of the study have now been published in the "American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine".

Cystic fibrosis gene causes airways to dry out and thickens mucus

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Asthma and smoker's lung: dry airways play a key role 

Dry airways may not only play a central role in the development of the inherited lung disease cystic fibrosis, but also in much more common acquired chronic lung diseases such as asthma and smoker’s lung, the cigarette smoke-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This is the conclusion reached by scientists at Heidelberg University Hospital under the direction of Assistant Professor Dr. Marcus Mall from the Department of Pediatrics at Heidelberg University Hospital and Professor Dr. Richard Boucher of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In animal studies, they found that insufficient hydration of the airway surfaces leads to pathologies typical of chronic obstructive lung diseases in humans.

Thus, these findings point to a new approach for the treatment of these diseases

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Doctor blames parents smoking for high rate of children's chest infections  

A third of children given hospital treatment for chest infections and asthma are only ill because their parents smoke in front of them, a medical expert has said.

Dr Steve Ryan, medical director of Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital, said bronchitis, asthma and ear infection rates would fall sharply if parents gave up smoking.

He told BBC Radio Five Live this morning that, out of the 35,000 children the hospital treats every year, 2,000 are there because they have been exposed to their parents' smoke.

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LETTER: Asthma a factor in smoking ban  

Before someone else complains about the no-smoking proposal, why don't we hear from someone who has experience with asthma? Did any of the writers of the previous letters to the editor ever experience an asthma attack triggered by smoke? Did they realize that Cache Valley already has bad air, and so to add cigarette smoke to the already unhealthy air is a recipe for disaster for asthmatics? Did they "research" how many carcinogens and toxins are in secondhand smoke?

Let's look at a study done at UCSF (a school not known for morals). In 2005, medical researchers there reported "directly measured secondhand smoke exposure appears to be associated with poorer asthma outcomes [than previously thought]. In public health terms, these results support efforts to prohibit smoking in public places." Do you think that those medical researchers included a 'moral factor' in their study when they recommended to ban smoking? . . .

Before anyone complains more about the morals behind banning smoking, try looking at it from the point of view of those with asthma and 'bad genes.'

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Lung disease soaring in women 

A Toronto medical expert says lung disease caused by tobacco smoke and air pollution will overtake breast cancer as a killer of Canadian women within seven years.

Dr. Kenneth Chapman, director of the Asthma and Airway Centre of the University Health Network, says twice as many men as women were hospitalized with chronic pulmonary obstructive disorder, or COPD, in 1985. The numbers are equal today and by 2015 women will outnumber men two to one.

He told delegates to the Upwind Downwind 2008 air quality conference at the Hamilton Convention Centre yesterday that there are many theories why COPD is affecting women more than men, one "that size matters -- that they are on average smaller and their lungs and breathing passages smaller, so women suffer far greater consequences." . . .

Chapman said the increase in diagnosed COPD among women in part reflects the increase in those who smoked in the latter half of the 20th century.

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New Group Chooses Its First Battle, Asthma  

GWENDOLYN STRETCH, the medical director at the Elsie Owens North Brookhaven Health Center, in Coram, had a lot to do during the 20-minute appointment with her next patient. . . . Atop the doctor's priority list was to encourage her patient to stop smoking.

"She really wants to get me to quit," said Ms. McPherson, who goes to the Suffolk County clinic every six weeks. "I'm going to try -- eventually."

Every week, Dr. Stretch meets with about 50 asthma patients as part of a new asthma initiative begun by the county's fledgling Division of Preventive Medicine.

"By educating our health care providers and our patients, we're trying to change the way we treat asthma," she said.

The asthma initiative is a pilot project for the Division of Preventive Medicine, created last month within the Department of Health Services. . . .

The asthma initiative is a partnership between the county and the Asthma Coalition of Long Island. It is financed partly by the New York State Department of Health

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Asthma death tied to smoke 

A 19-year-old woman shows up for work at a smoke-filled Michigan bar, appearing both healthy and happy. She's worked there without incident for several months. Fifteen minutes later, she collapses and dies within minutes of that.

A mystery?

No. An autopsy showed the woman died of a severe asthma attack. Dr. Ken Rosenman, a professor of medicine and chief of the division of occupational and environmental medicine at Michigan State University's College of Medicine, said the death is directly linked to the secondhand smoke in her workplace.

He published his findings this month in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, making it what is believed to be the first documented link of secondhand smoke to an asthma-related death in an adult, Rosenman said.

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Case links woman's death to environmental tobacco smoke, MSU prof says 

A young asthmatic woman who collapsed and died shortly after arriving for her shift as a waitress at a bar may be the first reported death to be reported nationally from acute asthma associated with environmental tobacco smoke.

This case report by an MSU physician, published in the February edition of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, not only outlines circumstances under which the woman died, but also raises a number of issues regarding safety in the workplace.

The report states the woman arrived at the bar in Michigan and, according to co-workers, seemed happy and healthy. About 15 or 20 minutes later she collapsed and within a few minutes died.

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How many deaths will it take? A death from asthma associated with work-related environmental tobacco smoke 

Results

The waitress collapsed at the bar where she worked and was declared dead shortly thereafter. Evaluation of the circumstances of her death and her medical history concluded that her death was from acute asthma due to environmental tobacco smoke at work.

Conclusions

This is the first reported acute asthma death associated with work-related ETS. Recent studies of asthma among bar and restaurant workers before and after smoking bans support this association. This death dramatizes the need to enact legal protections for workers in the hospitality industry from secondhand smoke.

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• Case links woman's death to environmental tobacco smoke, MSU prof says 

A young asthmatic woman who collapsed and died shortly after arriving for her shift as a waitress at a bar may be the first reported death to be reported nationally from acute asthma associated with environmental tobacco smoke.

This case report by a Michigan State University physician, published in the February edition of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, not only outlines circumstances under which the woman died, but also raises a number of issues regarding safety in the workplace.

The report states the woman arrived at the bar in Michigan and, according to co-workers, seemed happy and healthy. About 15 or 20 minutes later she collapsed and within a few minutes died.

"This is the first reported acute asthma death associated with work-related ETS," said Kenneth Rosenman, an MSU professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. "Recent studies of air quality and asthma among bar and restaurant workers before and after smoking bans support this association." . . .

"This death dramatizes the need to enact legal protections for workers in the hospitality industry from secondhand smoke."

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• Smoky bar triggered deadly asthma attack: study  

A woman in her late teens died from an acute asthma attack triggered by secondhand cigarette smoke shortly after arriving at her job as a waitress in a bar in Michigan, researchers reported on Friday.

They said it was the first reported case of an immediate death caused by secondhand smoke.

"She didn't have any other possible known causes of death," said Dr. Kenneth Rosenman, a Michigan State University professor who oversees three state public health surveillance systems. . . .

"After about 15 minutes, she had an acute asthma attack and collapsed on the floor. The autopsy clearly indicates she died from asthma," said Rosenman, who would not disclose the woman's name or the precise place and time of her death for privacy reasons.

Rosenman said the woman had asthma since age 2. Her asthma was poorly controlled. She had made four visits to her doctor in the year before her death for flare-ups, and had been treated in a hospital emergency department two to three times that year.

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There are a lot of statistics out there about secondhand smoke. Here is a human face. She died acutely. It is a tragic death.
Dr. Kenneth Rosenman, a Michigan State University professor who wrote in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine about a teenager who died from an acute asthma attack triggered by secondhand cigarette smoke shortly after arriving at her job as a waitress in a bar.

Smoke-free push gets personal; Appleton man's story featured in Web, radio campaign 

An Appleton teen who once was treated for a health problem induced by nearby smokers is a new face on a statewide campaign warning about the dangers of secondhand smoke.

Harrison Loveall, 19, a 2007 graduate of Appleton North High School who is featured in the new ads, said he hopes the public education messages help prompt state legislators to pass a statewide smoking ban being pushed by an Appleton lawmaker.

"A smoke-free state is what's needed for the future," Loveall said Saturday. "I hope that legislators will see the importance of this."

The launch of the two-month, $300,000 media campaign from the state Department of Health and Family Services came last week, about the same time state Rep. Steve Wieckert, R-Appleton, introduced legislation to enact a statewide workplace smoking ban. . . .

Loveall, now a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, said he was approached for the ad because of his involvement in tobacco prevention, including a group called Fighting Against Corporate Tobacco.

Loveall's work in tobacco prevention began after a health incident that happened when he went bowling with his dad in a smoky bowling alley. . . .

Loveall was transported to a hospital, where he was treated for a smoke-induced asthma attack.

Today he hopes his story will help convince the public about the benefits of a workplace smoking ban.

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Tucson Time Capsule: Pima County's smoke-filled room  

1988 Tensions were apparently running a little high on the Pima County Board of Supervisors after it passed a partial smoking ban. Supervisor Iris Dew-hirst continued to smoke in meetings and in her office, which was permitted by the new law. David Yetman, an asthma sufferer, objected. For one meeting, Yetman sat outside the meeting room while the board met in closed session. Dewhirst complained that Yetman had recently shut the door to her office when he was bothered by the smoke coming out of it. Before a meeting on Feb. 2, 1988, Supervisor Ed Moore handed out gas masks to the board members — all except Dewhirst.

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