Louisiana Tobacco Control Program

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Asthma; Secondhand smoke exposure increases adult asthma risk

Publish date: Jan 11, 2004

2004 JAN 11 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Adults exposed to secondhand cigarette smoke are much more likely to develop asthma. A recent study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, is the first to establish a link between the chronic lung condition and both lifetime secondhand smoke exposure as well as recent secondhand smoke exposure. Maritta S. Jaakkola at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, and colleagues looked at all newly diagnosed asthma cases in South Finland from mid-1997 through March 2000. Asthma was defined as a history of at least one asthma-like symptom (prolonged cough, wheezing, attacks of or exercise-induced shortness of breath or night-time cough or wheezing) accompanied by measurable airways narrowing. It was estimated that among people who had developed asthma in adult age and who had been exposed to secondhand smoke during the previous year at home or at work this exposure was responsible for 49.2% of newly diagnosed asthma cases. "Our results indicate that [environmental tobacco smoke] is an important preventable cause of asthma," the study's authors wrote (Jaakkola MS, Piipari R, Jaakkola N, et al. Environmental tobacco smoke and adult-onset asthma: a population-based incident case-control study. Am J Public Health, 2003;93(12):2055-2060).