Smoking Habits and Age in Relation to Pulmonary Changes

Abstract
IT has been reported that cigarette smoking is highly associated with coughing and shortness of breath1 and with the clinical finding of chronic bronchitis.2 Furthermore, it has been shown experimentally that exposure to cigarette smoke produces marked changes in the vascular system of the lungs of rats.3 This led us to suspect that the lung parenchyma of human beings might be directly affected by chronic irritation from tobacco smoke or indirectly affected as a result of changes in the bronchial tubes. Therefore, we undertook a histologic study of tissue from peripheral portions of the lungs. All the lungs in this . . .