Portable Air Cleaners for Patients with Chronic Cardiopulmonary Disorders Exposed to Tobacco Smoke at Home?

A large body of literature indicates that inadequate indoor air quality in homes may contribute to adverse health outcomes, especially in patients with chronic cardiopulmonary disorders, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, hypertension, congestive heart failure, and others. To this end, there is a growing number of randomized clinical trials focused on improving indoor air quality with portable air cleaners in the homes of individuals with chronic cardiopulmonary disorders, especially in current and/or former smokers. Based on our experiences in an ongoing trial and recent literature on unreported smoking rates in various study populations, we propose that residential portable air cleaner intervention trials should strive to account for both active smoking and indoor environmental tobacco smoke exposure in their design, execution, and data analysis to assist in study interpretation and inform clinical decision-making in this space.