http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/category/asthma.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.dailylobo.com/index.php/article/2010/03/smoking_in_the_wrong_place_sends_asthmatics_to_the_er http://tobacco.org/news/298106.html Since the smoking ban at UNM has been put in place, most people who smoke have complied. Unfortunately, there are still the few who have no regard for this new rule, and with no enforcement why should they? I would like to raise an issue of concern to those who still smoke outside of the designated areas, especially those who walk to class while smoking. It never seems to fail that everyday I get caught in the wake of smoke by smokers walking in front of me. As a student who has asthma, like many people in this state, I find this to be a violation of my right to breath clean air and be healthy. For some people with severe asthma, cigarette smoke can set off an attack and put people in the ER. . . . So please consider the health and well-being of others before you decide to light up in an undesignated area. Others and myself would greatly appreciate not having to try to hold our breaths until the smoke passes. Thank you. Daily Lobo Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/AAAAI/18747?utm_content=GroupCL&utm_medium=email&impressionId=1267521377042&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=mSpoke&userid=220600 http://tobacco.org/news/297896.html Action Points Explain to interested patients that the triggers for asthma are not well understood but the disease is now believed to result from a combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental factors, which are now being sorted out. Explain that this study, suggests that a pregnant woman's smoking can affect a child's risk of developing athsma. So cessation is especially recommended during pregnancy and after delivery to avoid exposing fetuses and infants to tobacco metabolites and secondhand smoke. Note that this study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. NEW ORLEANS -- Maternal smoking during pregnancy may exert a more powerful influence on asthma development in children than postnatal secondhand smoke or breastfeeding by smoking moms, researchers said here. Children of different ethnicities with exposure in utero to tobacco smoking were at nearly six times as likely to develop persistent asthma than children whose moms didn't smoke during pregnancy, according to Sarena Apte, MD, of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. . . . Source reference: Apte S, et al "Childhood persistent asthma after in utero tobacco exposure in Mexican, Puerto Rican, and African Americans" J Allergy Clin Immunol 2010; 125: AB57. MedPage Today Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://respiratory-research.com/content/pdf/1465-9921-11-11.pdf http://tobacco.org/news/297585.html Our population-based epidemiologic study showed the harmful effects of fetal and current exposure to tobacco smoke products. Prenatal exposure due to maternal smoking had the strongest effects on respiratory symptoms. Current household ETS exposure also showed significant adverse effects, but past-only ETS exposure was not associated with any respiratory outcome. In addition, the number of current household cigarettes smoked, the percentage of ETS exposure during lifetime, and the number of current smokers at home showed increasing trends in risks of respiratory symptoms. Respiratory Research Taiwan Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.medwire-news.md/48/86579/Respiratory/Study_confirms_ETS_link_to_childhood_wheeze,_asthma.html http://tobacco.org/news/297576.html Childhood exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in the home is significantly associated with an increased risk for wheeze and asthma, research confirms. Previous studies have shown that maternal smoking during pregnancy increases the risk for wheeze, asthma, and other health problems in children, explain Yungling Leo Lee (National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan) and colleagues. But they add that evidence for effects of childhood ETS exposure on respiratory outcomes is inconsistent. To investigate further, the team studied 5019 children, aged 12–14 years, from 14 Taiwanese communities who participated in the Taiwan Children Health Study. / / / “Public health policy for reducing the burden of respiratory symptoms may require a stronger focus on smoking cessation in the home, where children could gain significant health benefits.” MedWire News Taiwan Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-02/l-nih021710.php http://tobacco.org/news/297265.html Asthma is the most common chronic illness affecting Latino children in the United States, and secondhand smoke is a serious contributing factor. Now a new study from The Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine and Brown University suggests that clinically-based smoking cessation programs may not be enough to help Latino smokers with asthmatic children kick the habit. In the study, Latino parents with an asthmatic child were more likely to quit smoking when they received a culturally-tailored intervention that provides feedback about how much secondhand smoke their children were exposed to, compared to parents who followed existing smoking cessation clinical guidelines. Researchers say these findings reinforce the importance of educating parents about how their own smoking can affect their children with asthma. The study appears in the February issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology in a special edition focused on smoking cessation in underserved populations and innovative treatments. It is the first study to target smoking cessation in Latino caregivers of asthmatic children. EurekAlert jgrimes2@lifespan.org Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/minnesota-department-of-health-report-nearly-6000-hospitalizations-for-copd-in-2007-83920077.html http://tobacco.org/news/296710.html The nation's fourth leading cause of death, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is now being measured by the Minnesota Department of Health's Environmental Public Health Tracking Program. The program focuses on three major causes of hospitalizations in Minnesota that can be triggered or made worse by environmental factors such as secondhand smoke or outdoor air pollution -- asthma, heart attacks and COPD. The report indicates that 3.4 percent of adult Minnesotans report having COPD, among those 65 or older the rate is much higher, 7.4 percent. For seniors 85 or older, COPD is even more common, as hospitalizations for the chronic lung disease has nearly tripled between 1996 and 2007. This trend in Minnesota mirrors national statistics, although the state's age-adjusted mortality rates for adults 45 years and older per 100,000 population is lower (78.4 percent) than the national average (88.5 percent). PR Newswire Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1229480 http://tobacco.org/news/296650.html The high rate of asthma typically found in kids in housing projects is among the factors spurring Boston to ban smoking in public housing. "You have young children who are living in households with smokers and have asthma or are at risk of developing asthma," said Doug Brugge, a professor at Tufts School of Medicine and author of a 2003 study of Dorchester and South Boston projects that found elevated childhood asthma rates. "Clearly that is not a good thing for those children." Mold, poor ventiliation and pests also exacerbate asthma, but second-hand smoke is a main contributer, he said. Meena Carr, 68, who lives in Roslindale's Washington-Beech development, said smoke from other apartments triggered asthma attacks in her grandson, Malik Carr, 9, until she convinced the building to go smoke-free. "They don't have a choice," she said of children like Malik. There has been no widescale study of asthma rates of children in Boston public housing, but public-health experts say rates are higher than in the general population. Boston Herald jfargen@bostonherald.com (Jessica Fargen General Assignment Reporter ) Sun, 31 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583380,00.html http://tobacco.org/news/295637.html Children with asthma may have a harder time getting a good night's sleep if they live with a smoker. Researchers found that of more than 200 6- to 12-year-olds with asthma, those exposed to secondhand smoke tended to have poorer sleep at night and more drowsiness during the day. While the reasons for the connection are uncertain, the researchers say it's likely that asthmatic children exposed to tobacco smoke have more nighttime breathing problems, which in turn disrupts their sleep. The link between secondhand smoke and sleep problems was still apparent when the researchers accounted for the severity of the children's asthma overall -- suggesting that exposure to smoking, itself, was affecting the children's quality of sleep. Reuters newsmanager@foxnews.com Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/us/17smoke.html?_r=1 http://tobacco.org/news/294258.html When Massachusetts began offering virtually free treatments to help poor residents of the state stop smoking in 2006, proponents hoped the new Medicaid program would someday reap benefits. But state officials never expected it would happen so soon. New state data show a steep drop in the smoking rate among poor people. When the program started, about 38 percent of poor Massachusetts residents smoked. By 2008, the smoking rate for poor residents had dropped to about 28 percent, a decrease of about 30,000 people in two and a half years, or one in six smokers, said Lois Keithly, director of the state's Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program. There are also indications that the drop has lowered rates of hospitalization for heart attacks and emergency room visits for asthma attacks, she said. The data has not yet been peer-reviewed. But the numbers have already grabbed national attention, with several United States senators and antismoking advocates using the data to push for similar new Medicaid coverage for tobacco addiction in the national health care legislation. Senators Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, have introduced an amendment that would do so, and the Senate could vote on it by the weekend. New York Times Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=634117 http://tobacco.org/news/294257.html A gene variant that plays a role in inflammation seems to protect the lungs of children with asthma as well as adults who smoke. Researchers also found that adult smokers with this variant of the MMP12 gene had a lower risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a progressive condition often brought on by smoking. "The gene seems to be protective of the lungs in both asthma and COPD," said Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association. Any new gene identified raises the hope that it will provide ways to prevent or treat the disease to which it is allied and this is no exception. HealthDay [HealthScout] Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=634051 http://tobacco.org/news/294122.html Scientists have identified five genetic variants that influence lung function, a finding that may help lead to better treatments for lung diseases. The international team of researchers compared lung function with genetic variants at each of the 2.5 million sites across the human genome in more than 20,000 people of European ancestry. This led the team to the five common genetic variants associated with alterations in lung function. The findings of the study, which was led by Martin Tobin from the University of Leicester and Ian Hall from the University of Nottingham, were published online Dec. 13 in the journal Nature Genetics. HealthDay [HealthScout] Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pulmonary/Asthma/17354?userid=220600&impressionId=1260261439430&utm_source=mSpoke&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_content=Group1 http://tobacco.org/news/293880.html Asthmatic smokers who quit the habit can reverse lung damage that exacerbates their breathing difficulties, regardless of how long and how often they smoked in the past, a Dutch study found. The lungs of asthmatics who stopped smoking were in similar condition to those of asthmatics who never smoked, based on a several measurements of lung health, including goblet cell numbers and mucus-positive epithelium, epithelial thickness, epithelial proliferation rate, and mast cell numbers, according to a report in the Dec. 15 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. . . . Action Points * Explain to interested patients that smoking deteriorates lung tissue, which can exacerbate asthma. * Note that asthmatics who stop smoking seem to recover from smoking-induced lung deterioration, regardless of how much they smoked in the past. MedPage Today Netherlands Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/180/12/1170 http://tobacco.org/news/293878.html Conclusions: Smokers with asthma have epithelial changes that are associated with increased asthma symptoms, such as shortness of breath and phlegm production. The fact that epithelial characteristics in ex-smokers are similar to those in never-smokers suggests that the smoke-induced changes can be reversed by smoking cessation. . . . AT A GLANCE COMMENTARY Scientific Knowledge on the Subject Smoking has detrimental effects on asthma outcome, such as increased cough, wheezing, sputum production, and frequency of asthma attacks. This ultimately results in accelerated lung function decline. The underlying pathological process of smoke-induced deterioration of asthma is unknown. What This Study Adds to the Field This study shows that smoking in asthma induces epithelial changes, thereby possibly increasing asthma symptoms such as shortness of breath and phlegm production. The fact that epithelial characteristics were similar in ex-smokers and never-smokers with asthma suggests that the smoke-induced changes can be reversed by smoking cessation. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Netherlands Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.news-medical.net/news/20091207/Smoking-cessation-offers-measurable-benefits-for-asthmatic-patients.aspx http://tobacco.org/news/293872.html Asthmatic smokers may be able to reverse some of the damage to their lungs that exacerbates asthmatic symptoms just by putting down their cigarettes, according to research out of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The research is published in the December 15 issue of the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. "We found that exposure to cigarette smoke appears to increase the thickness of the epithelium, or lining, of the airways in the lung. This may be the underlying cause of the fact that smoking asthma patients experience more asthma symptoms, such as shortness of breath and phlegm production, compared to non-smoking asthma patients," said Martine Broekema, Ph.D., the lead author of the study. News-Medical.net Netherlands Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/09/content_12613932.htm http://tobacco.org/news/293838.html Asthmatic smokers may be able to reverse some of the damage to their lungs that exacerbates asthmatic symptoms just by quitting smoking, according to research by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The research was published in the Dec. 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. "We found that exposure to cigarette smoke appears to increase the thickness of the epithelium, or lining, of the airways in the lung. This may be the underlying cause of the fact that smoking asthma patients experience more asthma symptoms, such as shortness of breath and phlegm production, compared to non-smoking asthma patients," said Martine Broekema, lead author of the study. Xinhua Newswire Netherlands Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT