title: Association of environmental tobacco smoke exposure in childhood with early emphysema in adulthood among nonsmokers: the MESA-lung study.
abstract: Mechanical stress to alveolar walls may cause progressive damage after an early-life insult such as exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). This hypothesis was examined by using data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a population-based cohort aged 45-84 years, free of clinical cardiovascular disease, recruited from 6 US sites in 2000-2002. The MESA-Lung Study assessed a fractal, structural measure of early emphysema ("alpha," lower values indicate more emphysema) and a standard quantitative measure ("percent emphysema") from cardiac computed tomography scans. Childhood ETS exposure was assessed retrospectively as a report of living with one or more regular indoor smokers. Analyses included 1,781 nonsmokers (<100 cigarettes, 20 cigars, or 20 pipefulls in their lifetime and urinary cotinine levels <100 ng/mL); mean age was 61 years (standard deviation, 10), and 65% were women. Childhood ETS exposure from 2 or more smokers (17%) compared with none (52%) was associated with 0.05 lower alpha and 2.8 higher percent emphysema (P for trend = 0.04 and 0.01, respectively) after adjustment for demographic, anthropometric, parental, and participant characteristics, as well as adult exposures (e.g., cumulative residential air pollution exposure, exposure to ETS as an adult). Childhood ETS exposure was associated with detectable differences on computed tomography scans of adult lungs of nonsmokers.
authors: Mailman School of Public Health, 722 West 168th Street, Room 804, New York, NY 10032, USA. gl2225@columbia.edu
authors: Gina S
authors: GS
authors: Lovasi
authors: Ana V
authors: AV
authors: Diez Roux
authors: Eric A
authors: EA
authors: Hoffman
authors: Steven M
authors: SM
authors: Kawut
authors: David R
authors: DR
authors: Jacobs
authors: R Graham
authors: RG
authors: Barr
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011656:Pulmonary Emphysema / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012307:Risk Factors; D013147:Spirometry; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013997:Time Factors; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution