NYSA TI Multipage 2
Stanton A. Gla_tz, PhD William W. Parmley, MD Division of Cardiology
Abstract
The first disease linked definitively to active smoking was lung cancer. It is, therefore, not surprising that the first disease definitively to be caused by passive smoking was also lung cancer (USPHS, 1986). After all, before the adven~ of mass marketed cigarettes, lung cancer was a rare disease. The fac~ that smoking is the major identifiable cause of lung cancer made identifying this link -- for both active and passive smoking -- relatively s~raightforward. This situation contrasts with.
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Stanton A. Gla~tz, PhD
William W. Parmley, MD
Division of Cardiology
University of California
San Francisco, CA 94143
The first disease linked definitively to active smoking was
lung cancer. It is, therefore, not surprising that the first
disease definitively to be caused by passive smoking was also lung
cancer (USPHS, 1986). After all, before the adven~ of mass
marketed cigarettes, lung cancer was a rare disease. The fac~ that
smoking is the major identifiable cause of lung cancer made
identifying this link -- for both active and passive smoking --
relatively s~raightforward. This situation contrasts with. hea~
disease, which has many risk factors, so it is not surprising that
it took longer for the scientific community to conclude that active
smoking caused hear~ disease (USPHS, 1983). Once ~he link between
smoking and hear~ disease was established, it became clear that
smoking killed more people because of causing or aggravating hear~
disease than did the more widely known lung (and other) cancers.
Similarly, smoking is the most important preventable cause of
coronary disease. Given this history, it is not surprising that
exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) has now been linked
to hea~ disease in nonsmokers.
Much of the evidence for this link has appeared since the US
Surgeon General (USPHS, 1986) and National Academy of Sciences
(NRC, 1986) last reviewed the evidence on the health effects of
ETS. The evidence tha~ ETS increases the risk of heart disease
comes from several areas of scientific investigation. First, there
are now i0 epidemiological studies on the relationship between
exposure to envirorunental tobacco smoke in the home and the risk of
hear~disease in the nonsmoking spouse of a smoker. All but one of
these studies yielded a relative risk greater than 1.0. There is
also evidence that exposure to ETS reduces exercise tolerance of
both healthy individuals as well as people with existing coronary
artery disease. Such reduced exercise capability is one of the
landmarks of acute compromises to the coronary circulation. There
is good evidence, from both h~anand animal studies, that exposure
to tobacco smoke, including passive smoking, increases aggregation
of blood platelets. Such increases in platelet aggregation are an
importan~ step in the genesis of atherosclerosis. In addition,
increasing platelet aggregation contributes to coronary thrombosis,
the cause of acute myocardial infarction. Finally, carcinogenic
agents in ETS, including benzo[a]pyrene have been shown to produce
injuries to the endothelial cells which line arteries. Such
c: ~gt an:z~lm~uscr~
T!08872998

injuries are the first step in the development of a~herosclerosis.
Thus, expoeure to ETS can contribute to bo~h shor~ term and long
term insul~tothe coronary circulation and the hear~. It is no~
surprising that epidemiological studies have identified a modes~
increase in the risk of coronary artery disease in nonsmokers
laving with smokers.
Effects of Primary Smokin~
Before reviewing the evidence linking ETS with coronaryartery
disease, it is woz~h summarizing the evidence linking a~tive
smoking with coronaryarterydisease. This evidence was summarized
in the 1983 Surgeon General's Report, which was devoted entirely to
cardiovascular disease (USPHS, 1983):
In 1980, diseases of the circulatory system were
responsible for approximately one-half of the total U.S.
mortality. CHD WaS the single most immoz~cant cause of
death, accounting for approximately 30 percent of all U.S.
deaths.
Cigarette smoking is one of the three major independent
CHD risk favors. The magnitude of the risk associated
with cigarette smoking is similar to that associated with
the other two major CHD risk factors, hypertension and
hypercholesterolemia; however, because cigarette smoking
is present in a larger percentage of the U.S. population
than either hypertension or hypercholesterolemia,
cigarette smoking ranks as the largest preventable cause
of CHD in the United States. Cigarette smoking also acts
synergistically with the other major risk factors to
greatly increase the risk for CHD.
Arteriosclerosis is the predominant underlying cause of
cardiovascular disease, and atherosclerosis is the form of
arteriosclerosis that most frequently causes clinically
significant disease, including CHD, atherothromhic brain
infarction, atherosclero~ic aortic disease, and
atherom=lerotic peripheral vascular disease. Cigarette
smoking contributes both to the development of
atherosclerotic lesions and to the clinical manifestations
of a~he~osclerotic vascular disease, including sudden
death. Although the precise pathophysiologic basis of
these clinical manifestations is not understood, it may be
related to several deleterious cardiovascular effects of
cigarette smoking, including production of an imbalance
between myocardial oxygen supply and demand, a decrease in
threshold for'ventricular fibrillation, and an increase in
platelet aggregation. Nicotine and carbon monoxide are
the tobacco smoke constituents most closely associated
with these adverse effects; other cigarette smoke
constituents such as hydrogen cyanide, oxides of nitrogen,
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T108872999

and carbon disulfide are being studied for possible
pathologic cardiovascular effects.
Since 1983, evidence has also mounted that the polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons in cigarette smoke also can injure the arterial
endothelium and initiate the atherosclerotic process.
All the compounds implicated as damaging to the cardiovascular
system of smokers have been identified in ETS (USPHS, 1986; NRC,
1986).
Emidemiolomical Studies on ETS and Heart Disease
Since 1984, the epidemiological evidence linking exposure to
ETS with hear~disease has rapidly accumulated. The results of the
eleven published studies are summarized in Table 1 and Figure I;
four studies present data on men, eight on women, and one on both
sexes combined. Despite minor changes in methodology or end points
(some used de~hfrom ischemic hear~disease of any origin and some
were limited to myocardial infarc~cion), the results of these
studies are remarkable consistent. All the studies on men yielded
relative risks of death from heart disease exceeding 1 when a
nonsmoklng man was married to a woman who smoked, with a median
risk of 1.2. All but one of the studies on women (Lee et al, 1986)
yielded relative risks exceeding 1, wi~h a median relative risk of
1.4. Several studies also suggested an increase in the risk of
nonfatal coronary symptoms (Svendsen et al, 1987; Palmer et al,
1988; Hole et al, 1989). Consistency of an observation across
different studies increases the confidence one can have in the
belief that an association is causal (Hill, 1984).
When interpreting the results of such epidemiological studies,
it is always impoz~cant to consider biological plausibility and
potential confounding variables which could explain the results.
Aside from noting that the compounds in mainstream smoke that have
been implicated in heart disease are in ETS, we will defer the
discussion of biological plausibilltyuntil later in tJ1is chapter,
when we discuss the effects of ETS on platele~s and the atherogenic
agents in ETS. For now, we will concentrate on potential
confounding variables. These confounders are paz~cicularly
important in a disease like heart disease, because it is known to
be caused by multiple risk factors.
All of t~e studies controlled for the most important
confounding variable, age, and several (Garland et al, 1985;
Svedsen et al, 1987; He, 1989~ Hole et al, 1989~ Humble et al,
1990) controlled for known risk factors for coronary artery
disease, in particular levels of cholesterol, blood pressure and
weight (or body mass or body mass index). Most of the studies also
included one or more measures of socioeconomic status, such as the
nature of the housing or amount of education. Indeed, in studies
that estimated the relative risk both with and without taking these
T!08873000

confounding variables into account, found an increase in risk
associated with ETS after taking the confounding variables into
account (Svendsen et al, 1987, Humble et al, 1990). Against this
background, it is interesting to note that the one s~udy that
yielded a relative risk below 1 (Lee e~ al, 1986) failed to take
into acooun~ any of the potential confounding variables except age
and marital s~atus.
Lee (1988, 1989, 1990) has suggested that the elevated risk of
hear~ (and other) disease with passive smoking could be due to
misclassification of nonsmokers who are really smokers. In
addition, Wald (1986) has noted that some people who say they live
with nonsmokers have detectable levels of the nicotine metabolite
nicotine in their blood, indicating that they are actually exposed
to ETS, either at work or a~ home. The former type of
misclassification will tend to lead roan overestimate ofthe risks
associated with ETS and the latter will lead to an underestimate of
the risk. Careful analysis of theq~estion of misclassification --
which applies generally to studies of ETS and not just heal
disease -- have demonstrated that the observed risks cannot be
explained by this technical problem (Wald, 1986; Wells, 1986, 1988,
1990; Kawachi and Pearce, 1989; Reinken, 1989). In particular, both
the Surgeon General (USPHS, 1986) and the National Academy of
Sciences (NRC, 1986) were presented with the argumen~ ~hat
misclassification errors accounted for the link between ETS and
lung cancer and concluded that ETS caused lung cancer in healthy
nonsmokers. To date, no compelling case has been made that this
technical error explains consistent findings linking ETS with hearq:
(or lung) disease. Indeed, the net effec~ of these two types of
misclassification errors is to lead to an underestimate of the
effects of passive smoking.
There is always the possibility that there is some other
confounding variable relating to cultural factors, such as the
nature of housing or employment or the nature of time spent outside
the home. The fact that results from all over the world in widely
varying cultural settings -- including several regions in the
United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and China -- argues
against this concern.
Several authors also observed a dose-response relationship
between increasing amounts of smoking by the spouse and the risk of
heart disease in the nonsmoking spouse (Helsing et al, 1988
(statistically significant in women, but not men); Hole et al,
1989; Garland et al, 1985 (although not statistically significant);
Humble et al, 1990; He, 1989; Hirayama, 1984). The presence of
such dose-response effects across multiple studies, done in
differen~ locations with different criteria supports the hypothesis
that the epidemiology is revealing a real effec~ of ETS on heart
disease in nonsmokers.
4
T108873001

While all but one of the studies in Table I and Figure 1
yielded relative risks greater than i, the fac~ remains that 3 of
the studies in men and 4 of the studies in women had 95% confidence
intervals for the relative risk of passive smoking for hea~
disease that fell below 1.0, meaning ~hat the risk was not
statistically significantly elevated a~ove 1.0 (with P<.05). It is
important to note that the 95% confidence inter~als do not lie
symmetrically about 1.0, but rather are skewed towards higher
risks. Given the difficulties of obtaining enough patients in
epidemiological studies, it is often not possible to obtain
sufficient statistical power to detec~ biologically real effects
with traditional (95%) levels of statistical confidence (Friedman
et el, 1978). To avoid false negative conclusions, Roth~an (1978)
suggested examining the confidence interval, as we have done, in
concluding the exposure to ETS elevates the risk of hear~ disease
(Figure i).
One can assess formally how confident one can be in reaching
a negative conclusion by computing the power of the study to detec~c
an effect of specified size. Table i shows estimates of the power
of each of the studies to detect a 20% increase in risk of hear~c
disease (i.e., a relative risk of 1.2) with the available samples.
The power was computed as described in Muhm and Olshan (1989),
using a two-sided test for the relative risk with a Type I risk of
5% (i.e., requiring the 95% confidence interval for the relative
risk to exclude 1.0 before concluding a statistically significant
elevation in risk in an individual study). Most of the studies
have low to moderate power. The two (Helsing et al, 1988; Hole et
el, 1989) that have power above the desirable level of 80% both
identified significant increases of hear~: disease risk with ETS
exposure. Examining Table i reveals that the greater the power of
the study to detec~ an effect, ~he more likely it is to find a
significant effect or ETS. Interestingly, the study by Lee (1986)
which was the only one with a relative risk below I, also had the
lowest power to detect an effect, only 3%. As discussed by
Friedman et al (1978), such low powers are common in clinical
research, so one should consider not just whether a given study
yields statistically significant results, but also the confidence
interval as well as the results of several independent studies.
It is possible to combine the results of these studies in a
formal analysis to derive a global estimate of the relative risk
and associated 95% confidence interval. By combining the studies,
the sample size and so the power to detect an effect increases.
Wells (1988) used the studies by Gillis et al (1984), Lee et al
(1985), and Helsing et al (1987) to compute a pooled relative risk
of 1.3 (with a 95% confidence interval from I.i to 1.6) for men and
the studies by Hirayama (1984), Gillis et al (1984), Garland et al
(1985), Helsing et al (1988), Lee et al (1986), and Mar~in et al
(1985) to compute a pooled relative risk of 1.2 (with a 95%
confidence interval from 1.1 to 1.4) for women. By po61ing the
results of these studies, it is possible to increase the power of
5
T!08873002

the tests and so produce estimates of risk that are significantly
elevated. It is also significant that the 4 studies published
since Wells (1988) completed his computation (Palmer et el, 1988t
Humble et al, 1990t He, 1989; Hole et al, 1989) all independently
yielded relative risks significantly greater than i, so had these
studies been included, they would not have affe~ced Wells'
computation, beyond increasing the confidence (i.e., narrowing the
95% confidence inte~al) we can have in the results.
Finally, it is worth noting that all these studies are based
on the smoking habits of the nonsmoker's~, and so exposure to
ETS at home. Household exposures to ETS at home are generally much
smaller than exposures at work, where the density of smokers is
generally higher (Repace and Lowrey, 1985,1987). As a result,
these studies will underestimate the risk and attendant public
health burden due to ETS-induced hear~ disease. Kawachi et al
(1989] have adjusted Wells' (1988) relative risks to account for
workplace exposures to ETS and found that the relative risks
increase to 2.3 (95% CI 1.4 - 3.4) fo~ men and 1.9 (95% CI 1.4 -
2.5) for women. Thus, any potential confounding of the results due
to exposure to ETS outside the home will tend to lead to
underestimates rather than overestimates of the effec~c of ETS.
Likewise, estimates of public health impac~basedon risks computed
from household exposures (Wells, 1988) will be lower than the true
public health impact. In addition, Wells (1988) and Kawachi et al
(1989) indicate ~hat the number of hear~ disease deaths due to
passive smoking is an order of magnitude greater than then number
of lung cancer deaths due to passive smoking.
Acute Effects of ETS ExDo~ur~
Chronic exposure to ETS exerts carcinogenic effects by
increasing the c~mulative risk of a molecule of one of the
carcinogens in the ETS damaging the DNA in a cell and initiating or
promotingthe carcinogenic process. To date, no one has identified
any effects of acute exposure to ETS (or, for that matter, any
other carcinogen) on cancer. The situation with hear~ disease is
different. In heart disease there are both important chronic
changes- (i.e., the development of athercsclerotic lesions) and
acute changes. The latter include an increase in myocardial oxygen
demand which may outstrip the oxygen supply and produce ischemia,
and increased platelet aggregation which can lead to coronary
~hrombus and acute myocardial infarction.
When the coronary circulation cannot provide enough oxygen to
~he myocardlumto meet the demand, the result is ischemia which can
be silent or result in anginal chest pain. Earlier onset of angina
or hypotension during exercise is a reflection of more severe hear~
disease. Oxygen supply can be reduced by atherosclerotic narrowing
or vasoconstriction of the coronaries or by reducing the oxygen
carrying capacity of the blood by forming carboxyhemoglobin.
Khalfen and Klochkov (1987) confirmed earlier work byAronow (1978)
Ti08873003

demonstrating that exposure to ETS significantly reduced exercise
ability in patients with coronary artery disease and ~he rate
pressure produ~ (hear~ rate times systolic blood pressure). In
both studies, patients were exposed to realistic levels of ETS by
simply sitting in a waiting room while someone was smoking. These
effects were present in both smokers and nonsmokers (Khalfen and
Klochkov, 1987) and regardless of whether or not the room was
ventilated (Aronow, 1978; Khalfen and Kloc21kov, 1987). Exposure to
ETS also increased resting hear~ rate and systolic and diastolic
blood pressure, and resulted in a lower hear~ rate at the onset of
angina (Aronow, 1978). Blood carboxyhe~o~lobin was increased by
about 1% after exposure to ETS (Aronow, 1978). Thus, acute
exposure to ETS leads to an imbalance between myocardial oxygen
supply and demand during exercise in patient~ with coronary artery
disease. While ~his discussion has concentrated on ~he carbon
monoxide in ETS as ~he active agent, it is possible that some other
component of the ETS is causing or contributing to this effect.
The effects of ETS on cardiac performance are, in fact, severe
enough to affect exercise performance in young healthy subjects
with no evidence of hea~ disease. McAq~rray et al (1985) blindly
exposed young healthy women to pure air and air contaminated with
ETS while they exercised on a treadmill. The results were similar
to those observed in patients with coronary artery disease.
Resting hear~ rate was increased du~ing exposure to ETS, which
increased blood carboxyhemoglobin by about i%. Exposure to ETS
significantly reduced maximum oxygen uptake (by 0.251/sin and time
to exhaustion (by 2.1 sin). Exposure to ETS also increased the
perceived level of exertion during exercise, "maximum hear~ rate,
and COs output. It also significantly increased levels of lactate
in venous blood (from a mean of 5.5 mM during control period to
6.8 mM after exposure to ETS). This greater lactate at a lower
oxygen consumption during ~he passive smoking trials indicates a
greater reliance on anaerobic metabolism. The combined effect of
the reduced oxygen carrying capacity and increased lactate resulted
in a reduction in maximal aerobic power and the duration of
exercise. Thus, even in healthy subj ec~s, exposure to ETS
adversely affects exercise performance.
Lamb (1984) has suggested that at maximal exertion levels, up
to 90% of the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood may be needed.
Probably because of the carbon monoxide, ETS reduces this capacity,
so the muscle cannot maintain its high rate of aerobic metabolism
u~less cardiac output is further increased; people with hea~
disease and reduced ventricular reserve have difficulty meeting
this demand. Moskowitz et al (1990) found evidence ~hat adolescent
~hildren of parents who smoked may suffer from chronic tissue
hypoxla such as that observed in anemia, chronic pulmonary disease,
cyanotic hear~ disease or high altitude. These children had
significantly elevated levels of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (DPG),
which suggests that the body is a~tempting to compensate for
hypoxia by increasing DPG level in blood to meet tissue oxygen
7
T108873004

requirements, even after cozTecting for age, weight, height and
sex. These changes were dose-dependent; the greater the exposure
~o ETS (m~asured bo~h in terms of parental smoking and serum
~hiocyanate in ~he children), the greater the increase in DPG.
In sum, exposure to ETS increases the demands on the hear~
during exercise and reduces the capacity of the hear~ to respond.
This in~alance increases the ischemic s~ress of exercise in
patients with existing coronary a~ery disease and can acutely
precipitate symptoms.
There is also evidence that acute exposure to ETS directly
affects ~he myocardial muscle at a cellular level. GvozdJ~kova et
al (1984) exposed rabbits in a 50 liter child's incubator to the
smoke of ~ee burning cigarettes smoked over a 30 minute period
and measured several variables related to the metabolism of cardiac
mitochondria. (Mitcchondria are the suhcellular elements ~ha~
control cellular respira~iont ~hey conver~ oxygen into usable
energy in the form of ATP.) They had three groups of rabbits: one
group exposed to a single dose of ETS, one group exposed to 30 min
of ETS twice daily for two weeks, and one group exposed to 30
minutes of ETS twice a day for eight weeks. They measured
mitochcndrial respiration (QO~) as the consumption of oxygen after
adding ADP to a vessel contaihing mitochondrial fragments. Using
pyruvate as a substrate, mitochondrial respiration QO2 was reduced
significantly compared to control (pure air) for all doses of ETS,
even a single exposure (Figure 1), to about half the control value.
The oxidative phosphorylation rate was also reduced significantly
at all exposures by about one-third. There were no significant
changes in the coefficient of oxidative phosphorylation (ADP:O~)
with ETS exposure. Gvodjakova et al concluded that pyruvate as a
substrata was a sensitive indicator of the toxic action of the ETS
on the oxidative process.
Later, to fur~er isolate where in the process of mitochondrial
respiration, the ETS a~:ed, GvozdJ~k et al (1985, 1987) reported
data on succinate, NADH, and cy~ochrome oxidase activity in the
mitochcndria in the four groups of rabbits. Figure 2 shows the
results of exposure to ETS on the activity of NADH oxidase,
succinate oxidase and cy~ochrome oxidase of myocardial
mitochond~la. The activity of the first two oxidases exhibited no
changes compared with the control.group -- neither after a single
exposure to ETS or following exposures up to 2 weeks. .Cy~ochrome
oxidase activity decreased both after a single exposure to ETS and
over time, with increasing effects as the duration of exposure to
ETS is extended. The observation that cytochrome oxidase and not
NADH or succinate oxidase activity was affected by ETS suggests
~hat the deleterious effects of ETS on myocardial mitochcndrial
respiration occur at the terminal segment of the mitochondrial
respiration process. Prolonged exposure to carbon monoxide has been
shown to induce ultrastr~ctural changes in myocardium (KJeldsen et
8
T!08873005

el, 1974; Thom~en and KJeldsen, 1974; Lough, 1978), and may account
for ~he effects of ETS exposure on adverse mitochondrial func1:ion.
Thus, acute exposure to ETS not only increases the demand and
compromises the supply of oxygen to the hear~ as a whole, but also
reduces the myocardi~m's ability to use this oxygen to create ATP
to provide energy to suppor~ the heart's pumping activity. Given
these effe~cs on the supply and demand for oxygen, and the effec"cs
of ETS on platelets discussed below, it is not surprising that men
with a high risk of heart disease enrolled in the MRFIT study had
a greater relative risk of death from hear~ disease due ~o being
married to a woman who smoked, than otherwise healthy men mazTied
~o nonsmokers (2.1 vs. 1.2, see Table i).
Effects on Pla~elets
The action of ETS to increase platelet aggregation is another
way in which ETS can acutely increase the risk of a coronary event.
When blood platelets aggregate inappropriately and form a thromhus
(blood cio~), this clot can form in a fissured plaque in the
coronary circulation and precipitate a myocardial infarction.
Platelets are important for the normal body process of hemostasis,
to prevent blood loss after an injury. Hemostasis depends on
complex interactions among the dynamics of blood flow, components
of ~he vessel wall, blood platelets and plasma proteins. A
thrombus can be considered as an inappropriate form of hemostasis
and is composed of a mass of cellular material held together by a
fibrous network. Definitive evidence has confirmed that platelets
play a major role in t-hrombus formation and embolization,
especially in the arterial system. In addition, increasing
evidence has shown that platelet deposition and throm~us formation
can contribute to the growth and progression of a~herosclerotic
plaques (Fuster and Chesebro, 1981; Ross, 1986). An arterial
throm~us appears to develop in three phases: platelet adhesion,
platelet aggregation, and activating of clotting mechanisms.
Passive smoking increases platelet aggregation and so increases the
likelihood of throm~us formation and myocardial infarction.
Table 2 summarizes the results of three studies (Davis e~ al,
1985, 1986, 1989) on the effects of cigarette smoke on platslet
aggregation a~d damage to the arterial endothellum (lining). (We
will discuss the effects on the endothelium below.) Davis et al
(1989) also measured pla~elet aggregation ratio and endothelial
cell counts in nonsmokers before and after being exposed to 20
minutes of ETS while sitting in a hospital atrium. Mean values
before and after passive smoking were 0.87 and 0.78 (P-.002) for
platelet aggregation ratio and 2.8 and 3.7 (P~.002) for counts of
anuclear endothelial cell carcasses in venous blood. These changes
are in between the effects observed after nonsmokers smoked ~wo
tobacco cigarettes and the effects observed after smoking two non-
tobacco cigarettes (Davis et al, 1985) and similar to the values
observed in nonsmokers who smoked two cigarettes while trying not
c: ~gLan:z~mm~scr~ ~p~
T!08873006

CO inhale (Davis et al, 1986). These effects were not correlated
with the level of nicotine in the blood of ~he experimental
subjects in any of these or other (Davis e~ el, 1985, 1987),
related studies on how drugs modify platelet aggregation and
endothelial cell counts. In paz~cicular, the effects observed in
nonsmokers smoking without inhaling were similar to the effects on
smokers smoking two cigarettes, despite the fact that the plasma
nicotine levels in the nonsmokers were a factor of 5 smaller than
those observed in the smokers (Davis et el, 1986). In contrast,
other work in the same laboratory comparing smoking with snuff use
revealed similar changes under both conditions (Davis et el, 1990).
This result, combined with the finding that smoking non-tobacco
cigarettes (Davis et el, 1985) failed to produce changes in
platelet function as large as observed with tobacco cigarettes,
suggests that nicotine is an impoz~ant active agent. Since non-
tobacco cigarettes also affected platelet aggregation somewhat,
however, it is possible that carbon monoxide or other combustion
products are also influencing the platelets.
Sinzinger and Kefalides (1982) measured platelet sensitivity
to antiaggregatory prostaglandins (E~, and D2) before, during
and after 15 minutes of exposure to ETSI~ healthy nonsmokers and
smokers (Table 3). Passive smoking reduced platelet sensitivity to
the antiaggregatory prostaglandins I2 and ~ significantly (P<.01)
by a factor of about 2 by the end of 15 mlnutes exposure to ETS
among nonsmokers. This effect persisted at 20 minutes after
end of exposure, and was gone by 40 minutes. Platelet response
prostaglandinD2changed modestly in a similar pattern, but did not
reach statistical significance. Among smokers, the control level of
platelet aggregation was higher (P<.01) and the prostaglandins had
no significant effects on platelet aggregation over time during or
following exposure to ETS. Thus, nonsmokers' platelets seem much
more sensitive to a single exposure to ETS than do smokers'
platelets, with platelet sensitivity ~o diasggregating
prostaglandins having similar effects in nonsmokers acutely exposed
to ETS as it does on the chronic levels of platelet aggregation
observed chronically in smokers.
Fuz~her evidence from the same laboratory that passive smoking
increases platelet aggregation comes from work by Bur~huber at al
(1986), who had smokers and nonsmokers smoke two cigarettes and
also ex~oseda different group of smokers and nonsmokers to ETS in
• an 18 m~ room in which 30 cigarettes had been smoked just before
exposing the nonsmokers. They measured the sensitivity of
platele~s to the disaggre~ating substance prostaglandin I~ (PGI2),
which is released by endotheliumand inhibits platelet aggr-egati6n.
(PGI2 is also called prostacyclin.) Figure 3 shows the results of
this experiment. In smokers, neither smoking nor passive smoking
affected t21e sensitivity of the platelets to the disaggregating
effect of prostaglandin I2. The sensitivity of platelets in
smokers was also significantly lower than nonsmokers. In contrast,
platelets were more sensitive to prostaglandin Iz in nonsmokers,
10
T108873007
