The poison in smoke
Smokers exhale high levels of a poison linked to asthma and bronchitis that can seriously affect the breathing of those around them, research by a team of scientists in Sweden has found.
For the first time scientists have shown that endotoxins, that are made by bacteria and occur naturally in the air, are produced by tobacco smoke in high concentrations.
The findings will add weight to growing calls for a ban on smoking in enclosed public areas such as pubs, restaurants and other workplaces.
The researchers from Lund University in Sweden used a unique method of chemical analysis to measure levels of endotoxins caused by tobacco smoke.
Tobacco is known to contain more than 4,000 chemicals, including 50 substances that have been shown to cause cancer. In high concentrations, endotoxins can cause serious inflammatory reactions in the respiratory tract, leading to bronchitis and asthma. But it has not been clearly shown before that cigarette smoke contains true endotoxins, bacterial lipopolysaccharides.
The Swedish team, led by Associate Professor Lennart Larsson, found that the level of the toxic substances in the air of a smoky room was 120 times higher than in a smoke-free room.
The team also concluded that the tobacco endotoxin appeared to be the most aggressive type among the various forms that exist. “This can be one reason why smokers so often suffer from respiratory ailments,” Professor Larsson said. – dpa
Regenerating hearts
Infusing patients with bone marrow cells can reinvigorate their dying hearts and grow tiny new arteries and heart muscle tissue, a treatment that may one day make many heart transplants unnecessary, Brazilian researchers said. Dr Hans Fernando Dohmann, coordinator of the research carried out at the Pro-Cardiac Hospital in Rio de Janeiro, said four patients out of the five studied no longer needed transplants after being treated with stem cells. – Reuters
Suicide risk
Babies of teenage mothers and infants who have a low birth weight have a higher risk of committing suicide later in life than other children, Swedish scientists said.
In a study of more than 700,000 young adults, researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found that infants born to young mothers or those who weighed 2kg at birth were twice as likely to try to kill themselves. – Reuters
No link
Infection with simian virus 40 (SV40) plays little or no role in the development of mesothelioma, a cancer affecting the lining of the lungs that has been linked to asbestos exposure, according to a report in The Lancet.
In the 1950s and 1960s, several hundred thousand military recruits in the United States received a vaccine contaminated with SV40. Since then, concerns have been raised that SV40 may cause cancer after researchers noticed the presence of its DNA in various tumour specimens. – Reuters
No racial factor
There is no difference in survival between black and white patients with heart disease who undergo angioplasty, a procedure to open blocked heart blood vessels, new research shows. Cardiologists from Beth Israel Medical Centre in New York analysed the impact of race on 3,783 patients who underwent angioplasty between 1998 and 1999. The group included 462 black and 3,321 white patients. – Reuters
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