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The New York Times Well Blog — a tremendous resource generally — reports on two new studies that come to an important conclusion for anyone designing a wellness program as well as their employees: “Smokers who think they are escaping the lung-damaging effects of inhaled tobacco smoke may have to think again, according to the findings of two major new studies, one of which the author originally titled ‘Myth of the Healthy Smoker.'”

The studies focus on Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or C.O.P.D.. Unfortunately, according to the New York Times, “even when spirometry [a breathing test] is done, the new studies prove that the test often fails to detect serious lung abnormalities that cause chronic cough and sputum production and compromise a person’s breathing, energy level, risk of serious infections and quality of life.”

One study, titled “Clinical and Radiologic Disease in Smokers With Normal Spirometry” and published in JAMA Internal Medicine concluded: “We found that more than half of the smokers with normal spirometry have significant disease. We believe that our results highlight the importance of smoking prevention and cessation as a primary strategy to prevent lung disease and other long-term effects of smoking. In the US population of more than 76 million people 55 years or older, there are an estimated 35 million who are current or former smokers, many of whom may remain undiagnosed when identification of COPD is based solely on spirometry.”

Said researcher Dr. Elizabeth A. Regan: “We live happily in the world thinking that only a small percentage of people who smoke get this devastating disease. However, the lungs of millions of people in the United States are negatively impacted by smoking, and our methods for identifying their lung disease are relatively insensitive.”

The second study, titled “Clinical Significance of Symptoms in Smokers with Preserved Pulmonary Function” and published in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes that “Although they do not meet the current criteria for COPD, symptomatic current or former smokers with preserved pulmonary function have exacerbations, activity limita- tion, and evidence of airway disease.”

Some ideas for workplace wellness programs? The NYT piece concludes: “To improve exercise tolerance, patients are encouraged to walk as fast as they can for as long as they can, rest, then walk some more. Most patients find this easiest to do on a treadmill, where speed and incline can be precisely regulated and the results measured. But if such equipment is unavailable or too costly to access, walking indoors or outdoors can be helpful if geared to a specific distance and speed that are gradually increased.”

“Most critical, of course, is for smokers with or without symptoms of lung disease to quit smoking, which can reduce the severity of respiratory symptoms and slow the decline in lung function, Dr. Regan’s team wrote.”