Lung cancer has a familial component which suggests a genetic contribution to its etiology. Given the strong evidence linking smoking with lung cancer, we studied miRNA-related loci in genes associated with smoking behavior. CHRNA, CHRNB gene families, CYP2A6, and DRD1 (dopamine receptor D1) were mined for SNPs that fell within the seed region of miRNA binding sites and then tested for associat...

Maternal smoking during pregnancy is one of the most modifiable causes of morbidity and mortality for both pregnant women and their fetuses. The long-term effects of prenatal exposure to smoke on child behavior and development have been the subject of more extensive research than have the short-term effects. Therefore, the aim of this work is to examine the effects of smoke exposure during preg...

BACKGROUND A shared feature among cardiovascular disease risk factors is increased oxidative stress. Because mitochondria are susceptible to damage mediated by oxidative stress, we hypothesized that risk factors (secondhand smoke and hypercholesterolemia) are associated with increased mitochondrial damage in cardiovascular tissues. METHODS AND RESULTS Atherosclerotic lesion formation, mitocho...

Article 8 of the FCTC, calls for greater protection from exposure to tobacco smoke (Figure 5.4). In the 1980s, some countries began to implement subnational smoke-free policies. By 2004, Ireland, Norway, and New Zealand were the first countries to implement comprehensive smoke-free worksite policies that also included restaurants and bars. Motivated in part by the FCTC mandate to expand smokefr...

Smoking in the home remains a key source of exposure to secondhand smoke for non-smokers, particularly since the UK public smoking ban in 2007. A systematic literature review was conducted to identify all UK evidence on the impact of secondhand smoke exposure in the home on health and behavioural outcomes in non-smoker occupants. MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library were searched to identif...

Our objective was to assess how exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke occurs in Hungarian homes, particularly among non-smokers, and to examine the effectiveness of home smoking bans in eliminating exposure to secondhand smoke at home. In 2009, 2286 non-smokers and smokers aged 16-70 years, who were selected randomly from a nationally representative sample of 48 Hungarian settlements, completed ...

Introduction: This report presents the findings from two cross-sectional studies designed to assess upper respiratory health symptoms and attitudes regarding secondhand smoke exposure among bartenders in Madison and Appleton, Wisconsin. The first study was conducted just prior to the implementation of smoke-free workplace ordinances, which occurred on July 1, 2005. The second study was conducte...

Background. Few studies have shown that self-reported secondhand smoke exposure in never smokers is associated with high blood pressure. However, there are no studies investigating the relationship between secondhand smoke exposure, measured objectively by serum cotinine levels, and high blood pressure in never smokers. Methods. We examined never smokers (n = 2027) from the National Health and ...

While chronic exposure to secondhand smoke has been well recognized as a cause of heart disease in nonsmokers, there has been recent speculation about the potential acute cardiovascular effects of transient exposure to secondhand smoke among nonsmokers; in particular, the possibility that such exposure could increase the risk of acute myocardial infarction even in an otherwise healthy nonsmoker...