Relevant exposure to environmental tobacco smoke surrogate does not produce or modify secretory otitis media in the rat.

Parental smoking is a possible risk factor in the development of secretory otitis media (SOM) in children. This experiment was designed to determine, using rats as an experimental model, whether exposures to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) produce SOM and whether ETS exposure affects the rate of clearance of an experimentally induced effusion. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to 3 different concentrations of aged and diluted sidestream smoke, a surrogate for ETS, from IR4F research cigarettes for 6 hr per day for 5 days. Experimental SOM was induced bilaterally in subgroups of animals from each group, by cold air exposure to the external auditory canals. Ears of rats were examined during the in-life portion of the study. Histopathologic examination of the middle ear was conducted at the termination of the 5-day period. The production of SOM was not induced by ETS exposure, nor were there differences noted between the groups in the rates of clearance of the experimentally induced SOM. Short-term exposure to ETS did not affect the acquisition or clearance of SOM in the rat.