Acute effects of smoking and high experimental exposure to entvironmental tobacco smoke, ETS, on the immune system

Controversial results have been published on the immune response to cigarette smoking while the effects of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) have not yet been reported. In a controlled study, acute effects of smoking and of a high environmental exposure to ETS on immunological parameters have been investigated. The study consisted of four experimental days, two control and two exposure days. On control days, I and 3, smokers (n=5) and nonsmokers (n=5) sat in an unventilated 45 cbm room for 8h. On the exposure days, 2 and 4, each of the smokers smoked 24 cigarettes in 8h, while the nonsmokers were exposed to the ETS generated by the smoking volunteers. Blood was drawn before and after each exposure session on all four experimental days for dosimetry of tobacco smoke exposure and determination of the immune response.