3 Moore VC, Jaakkola MS, Burge CB, et al. A new diagnostic score for occupational asthma. The area between the curves (ABC score) of peak expiratory flow on days at and away from work. Nevertheless, there are compelling uses of b-blockers in asthmatics, such as in heart failure and after myocardial infarction. The effect of chronic administration of b-blockers in asthma has remained unknown until recently, when studies on a murine model of asthma showed that, while acute (singledose) administration of b-blockers increased airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), their chronic (28-day) administration had an opposite effect and decreased AHR [3]. Furthermore, recent data demonstrate that chronic b-blocker treatment produces broad anti-inflammatory effects, and especially dramatic effects on airway epithelium and mucous metaplasia [4,5]. More recently, our group has further confirmed the pivotal role that b 2 -ADR has on mucous metaplasia using a b 2 -ADR null mouse [6]. Based on these findings in the murine asthma model, we investigated the role of chronic administration of