Abstract
Fifteen asthmatic children, whose prick tests to tobacco smoke were all negative, were exposed to sidestream cigarette smoke (passive smoking) for 30 minutes in a room in which the carbon monooxide concentration was 7-8ppm. At the time of study, the patients were asymptomatic and had normal or nearly normal respiratory function. Patients showed an increase of 0.21per cent in carboxyhemoglobin as a result of the passive smoking. Passive smoking produced almost no change in the flow volume curves. However, there was a decrease in functional residual capacity (FRC), thoracic gas volume (TGV) and specific airway conductance (SGaw) More interestingly, airway resistance (Raw) showed a continuous increase, even at 6 hours after passive smoking. These findings suggest that passive smoking does not induce allergic reaction to tobacco smoke, but does stimulate bronchial hyperactivity in asthmatic children.
