Impact of environmental tobacco smoke and active tobacco smoking on the development and outcomes of asthma and rhinitis

Abstract

Several deleterious effects have been described in asthma because of smoking: accelerated decline in lung function, more severe symptoms, impairment in quality of life and diminished therapeutic response to steroids. The harmful effect of tobacco smoking is not only on asthma but also on rhinitis playing a role in disease outcomes. Tobacco exposure can influence innate immunity diminishing innate production of antigen-presenting cells cytokines, as well as an impaired response to toll-like receptor ligands. Active smoking is associated with current symptoms of asthma and rhinitis and seems to be a risk factor for developing new asthma in patients with rhinitis. Tobacco smoking has been also found among the factors inducing nasal obstruction and decreased muco-ciliary clearance in nonallergic rhinitis.

Respiratory health and indoor air pollutants based on quantitative exposure assessments

“…It contains .4,500 compounds. Out of them, o250 chemicals are known to be toxic and .50 can cause cancer [8].…”

Smoke-free Legislation and Hospitalizations for Childhood Asthma

“…Studies in Scotland and in the United States have shown that 40% of 11-year-old children 4 and 5-year-old children 5 live with a smoker. Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke increases the incidence and severity of asthma, 6 and children are particularly susceptible to the deleterious effects of such exposure. 7 In the United States, more than 200,000 episodes of childhood asthma per year have been attributed to parental smoking.…”

Smoking attitudes of the patients with allergic rhinitis: a comparison with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Are there differences when only upper airways are involved?

“…On the otherhand, innate immunity is impaired by tobacco exposure as well (26,27). Although several reports exist on ETS as a risk factor for having allergic diseases, scarce information is available regarding allergic rhinitis (8). While, smoking was found not to worsen the symptoms of allergic rhinitis, it has been demonstrated to be a significant related risk of incidence of asthma in patients with AR (8,9).…”

“…Although several reports exist on ETS as a risk factor for having allergic diseases, scarce information is available regarding allergic rhinitis (8). While, smoking was found not to worsen the symptoms of allergic rhinitis, it has been demonstrated to be a significant related risk of incidence of asthma in patients with AR (8,9). Moreover, there was no evidence that active smoking increased the risk of AR, but a significant relation was reported between passive smoking and AR in a meta-analysis (10).…”

“…On the other hand, despite being a common airway disease, there are no data about smoking behaviours and motivation to quit in patients with AR. So far, a limited number of studies have investigated the relationship between the aggravation of symptoms of AR and progression to asthma with smoking in active or passive smokers (8)(9)(10). but, it has not been reported whether having AR affects patients' perceptions of smoking and their attitudes toward smoking.…”