Secondhand Smoke Affects Healthy Adults
Posted on: Wednesday, 15 November 2006, 18:00 CST
Over time, inhaling secondhand smoke can cause otherwise healthy adults to develop chronic respiratory symptoms, say researchers in Switzerland.
Margaret W. Gerbase of the University Hospitals of Geneva and 11 associates assessed the respiratory symptoms in 1,661 people who never smoked over an 11-year period.
All individuals in the study cohort participated in the Swiss Study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults in 1991 and again in 2002 -- a large-scale investigation of the long-term health effects of moderate ambient air pollution in Switzerland.
The results of our longitudinal assessment of environmental tobacco smoke, or ETS, effects in asymptomatic never-smokers showed that exposure to ETS was associated with the development of respiratory symptoms, said Gerbase.
In subjects with bronchial hyper-reactivity, the researchers observed a link between ETS and symptoms like wheeze, cough, dyspnea -- shortness of breath -- and chronic bronchitis; however, only the association between dyspnea and ETS reached statistical significance.
The findings are published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Source: United Press International
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