chronic bronchitis causes squamous metaplasia of the pseudostratified columnar epithelium in the bronchi and bronchioles

---- these columnar epithelium normally contribute to the mucociliary clearance and smoking also damages this clearance, so can get the clue from that too

I was stuck on this one for a long time but maybe my super round about way will help someone?

you know this person has chronic bronchitis (especially cause they have cyanosis which is blue bloater vs pink puffer of emphysema). The distinguishment of pink vs blue is b/c in emphysema you have destruction of both the alveoli with the associated vasculature. Therefore there is no V/Q mismatch (pink). But in chronic bronchitis the damage is further up from the alveoli. All the other answers were in the alveoli so that's how I chose pseudostratified columnar epithelial cells.

Or maybe i'm just dum as hell and this level of overthinking is why i'm losing points on other questions