| Sidestream Tobacco Smoke Exposure Acutely Alters Human Nasal Mucociliary Clearance
Rebecca Bascom,
1
Jana Kesavanathan,
1,2
Thomas K. Fitzgerald,
1
Kuo-Hsi Cheng,
2
and David L. Swift
2
(1) Environmental and Airway Disease Research Facility, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201 USA
(2) Division of Environmental Health Engineering, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205 USA Abstract
Nasal mucociliary clearance (NMC) is a biomarker of nasal mucosal function. Tobacco smokers have been shown to have abnormal NMC, but the acute effect of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) on nonsmokers is unknown. This study evaluated acute tobacco smoke-induced alterations in NMC in 12 healthy adults. Subjects were studied on 2 days, separated by at least 1 week. Subjects underwent a 60-min controlled exposure at rest to air or sidestream tobacco smoke (SS) (15 ppm CO) in a controlled environmental chamber. One hour after the exposure, 99m Tc-sulfur colloid was aerosolized throughout the nasal passage and counts were measured with a scintillation detector. Six out of 12 subjects showed more rapid clearance after smoke exposure than after air exposure, and 3/12 had rapid clearance on both days. However, substantial decreases in clearance occurred in 3/12 subjects, all of whom had a history of ETS rhinitis. In two subjects, more than 90% of the tracer remained 1 hr after tracer administration (2 hr after smoke exposure) . Understanding the basis for biologic variability in the acute effect of tobacco smoke on NMC may advance our understanding of pathogenesis of chronic effects of ETS. Key words : environmental tobacco smoke, inhalation toxicology, mucociliary clearance, nose, tobacco. Environ Health Perspect 103:1026-1030 (1995) Address correspondence to R. Bascom, Environmental and Airway Disease Research Facility, 10 S. Pine Street, Room 800, Baltimore, MD 21201 USA. This research was supported by the Center for Indoor Air Research, Linthicum, Maryland. Received 17 April 1995 ; accepted 17 July 1995.
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