It has long been clear that cigarette smoking is causally linked to many diseases, particularly lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and various forms of cardiovascular disease. For lung cancer, for example, a meta-analysis my colleagues and I conducted, based on epidemiological evidence published in the 1900s [1], estimated that current smoker/never smoker relative risks, were around 10 in North America

Dendritic cells (DC) present antigens for an immune reaction. Subtypes of DC such as plasmocytic (pDC), monocytoid (mDC), immature (imDC), classical (cDC), follicular (fDC), and interdigitating (intDC) and Langerhans cells (LHC) either aggravate or limit an immune reaction. Not much is known about the role of LHC and DCs in respiratory bronchiolitis-interstitial lung disease (RB-ILD), and desquamative interstitial pneumonia (DIP) and Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LHCH).

In recent years, the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) or “vape” in which nicotine is the major component has been dramatically increasing, particularly among teenagers and young adults. This is due to a general perception that e-cigarettes are harmless to use, in particular for the cessation of tobacco smoking. Thus, a better understanding of whether e-cigarettes pose a risk to human health is urgently needed. Nicotine exposure can accelerate malignant growth of cancer cells.

The health consequences of tobacco use continue to be a major concern in the United States and the world. Consequently, nicotine metabolite testing has expanded to include workplace testing, child custody cases, health insurance pre-qualification, pre-surgical organ transplant qualification, and smoking cessation programs. Nicotine use is also linked to poor surgical outcomes and studies have shown an increased risk for infection, increased morbidity, delayed wound healing, longer hospital stays, and postoperative respiratory failure.

Presently, more than 10% of patients >70 years of age suffer from heart failure (HF). As the older population increases in numbers and also as a share of the total population, the prevalence of HF will increase [1,2]. Untreated, approximately 60-70% of these patients will die within 5 years [3,4].