question: We have a 17 year old son who is on Xolair Injections every 2 weeks for his severe Asthma. Also, daily maintenance meds of Symbicort, Allegra D and Zyflo.  Has been on Xolair for close to 9 months.  His symptoms appear no better - His doctor has been literally "scratching his head" as to why his treatments are not working - even ordered echocardiogram which came back normal.  Here is probably the problem..... Right after that about 2 weeks ago, we found that he has been chewing tobacco the whole time.   Would this cause adverse reactions to cause the medicines not to work.  We are doing everything we can to get him off of it, but he defies his father by saying he will not quit.  We are grasping at anything that will "scare" him to know how bad this is.  Please help us if you can.  There is no way that the nicotine cannot be harmful to his lungs which are already weak -- and I don't have to tell you how much we are spending on the Xolair to keep his lungs "healthy" - and looks like it is being wasted.    Thank you in advance for your reply.  e-mail:   YYYY@YYYY