Michelle Harbin, MS doctoral student in the School of Kinesiology, recently published new research on secondhand smoke impacts on children and adolescents’ cardiovascular health. Harbin and colleagues studied the carotid artery in the neck brachial artery in the upper arm and abdominal aorta right above the belly button in 298 nonsmoking youth, ranging from 8 – 18 years old.
The study found that the carotid and brachial artery had no impact from secondhand smoke exposure, however, stiffness in the abdominal aorta increased. “Stiffness in this particular artery has been previously reported to exhibit increased susceptibility to atherosclerosis, which is a buildup of plaques that can restrict blood flow,” says Harbin.
Donald R. Dengel, PhD, professor in the School and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Human Physiology, and Nick Evanoff, MS, doctoral student, were co-investigators of the study.
