Chronic exposure to (cigarette smoke) CS causes biological changes, including airway remodeling and changes in baseline gene expression profiles at the level of the epithelium. Our own data indicate that chronic exposure to CS suppresses the ability of epithelial cells to enhance antiviral gene expression in response to influenza infection and activate host defense responses. While there is a large body of evidence supporting the notion that exposure to CS causes significant changes in host defense responses, which may be linked to permanent changes in epithelial cells at the genomic level, it is not known whether new and emerging tobacco products have similar or distinct effects.