Cigarette Smoking and Respiratory Infections in a Class of Student Nurses

Abstract

THE practice of cigarette smoking has been clearly related to chronic bronchitis,¹ a condition marked not only by overproduction of bronchial secretions but also by disability from recurrent bacterial and viral infections.² Although inhalation brings smoke into intimate contact with a similar type of epithelium in the nasopharynx, infections of the upper respiratory tract have not been related to smoking in the same unequivocal fashion as those of the lower.The frequency and severity of respiratory infections are most accurately determined by prospective studies of persons who will report for medical inspection at the first sign of a cold. This . . .