Catherine is involved with Model United Nations as part of her history class, which she calls "a worthwhile activity." She also likes shopping. Someday Catherine hopes to become a pediatrician because, she says, "the personal experience of having asthma has inspired me to pursue this career."
Studies have linked breathing problems to chronic exposure to secondhand smoke. Catherine hypothesized that students exposed to tobacco smoke in their homes would experience more compromised lung function than children who didn't live with a smoker.
Using a machine that measures lung function when a person breathes into it, Catherine recorded the forced expiration of 108 randomly selected middle school students four times over a nine-month span. The students also completed a survey about smoking in their homes and other factors that might influence their breathing, such as asthma, height, weight, age, and gender. Students exposed to secondhand smoke in the home showed increasing impairment of their lung function as the seasons moved from summer to the following spring. Students not living with a smoker showed no change.
