How and why chemicals from tobacco smoke can induce a rise in blood pressure

The primary objective of this article is to analyze the role of tobacco smoke compounds able to damage the cardiovascular system and, in particular, to interfere with blood pressure. They are products of tobacco plant leaves, like nicotine, thiocyanate and aromatic amines, and a chemical derived from cigarette com-bustion, carbon monoxide. Of the other thousands of chemicals, there is no clear evidence of cardiovascular damage. Nicotine and its major metabolite, cotinine, usually increase blood pressure by a direct action and an action stimulating neuro-humoral metabolites of the body as well as sympathetic stimulation. An indirect mechanism of damage exerted by elevated carboxyhe-moglobin concentrations is mediated by carbon mon-oxide, which, mainly induces arterial wall damage and, consequently, late rising in blood pressure by a toxic direct action on endothelial and blood cells. Thiocya-nate, in turn, reinforces the hypoxic effects determined by carbon monoxide. Aromatic amines, depending on their chemical structure, may exert toxic effects on the cardiovascular system although they have little effect on blood pressure. A rise in blood pressure determined by smoking compounds is a consequence of both their direct toxicity and the characteristics of their chemical chains that are strongly reactive with a large number of molecules for their spatial shape. In addition, a rise in blood pressure has been documented in individuals smoking a cigarette, acutely and chronically, with irre-versible artery wall alterations several years after begin-ning smoking. Since cigarette smoking has a worldwide diffusion, the evidence of this topic meets the interest of both the scientifc community and those individuals aiming to control smoking.

Sensitivity analysis of surface ozone to emission controls in Beijing and its neighboring area during the 2008 Olympic Games

The regional air quality modeling system RAMS （Regional Atmospheric Modeling System）-CMAQ （Community Multi-scale Air Quality modeling system） is applied to analyze temporal and spatial variations in surface ozone concentration over Beijing and its surrounding region from July to October 2008.Comparison of simulated and observed meteorological elements and concentration of nitrogen oxides （NOx） and ozone at one urban site and three rural sites during Olympic Games show that model can generally reproduce the main observed feature of wind,temperature and ozone,but NOx concentration is overestimated.Although ozone concentration decreased during Olympics,high ozone episodes occurred on 24 July and 24 August with concentration of 360 and 245 μg/m 3 at Aoyuncun site,respectively.The analysis of sensitive test,with and without emission controls,shows that emission controls could reduce ozone concentration in the afternoon when ozone concentration was highest but increase it at night and in the morning.The evolution of the weather system during the ozone episodes （24 July and 24 August） indicates that hot and dry air and a stable weak pressure field intensified the production of ozone and allowed it to accumulate.Process analysis at the urban site and rural site shows that under favorable weather condition on 24 August,horizontal transport was the main contributor of the rural place and the pollution from the higher layer would be transported to the surface layer.On 24 July,as the wind velocity was smaller,the impact of transport on the rural place was not obvious.