Parents’ smoking increases children’s risk of bronchitis

Pamela Egan Practical Practitioner

By: Pamela Egan, FNP-C CDE


Parents’ smoking increases children’s risk of bronchitis

I just returned from a holiday in Ireland. While reading an article in the Irish Independent, it was interesting to note a disturbing new study. “Parents who smoke are directly causing increased levels of bronchitis in their teen-age children.”

Reportedly, one sixth of lung cancer cases in non-smoking adults can be attributed to cigarette smoke exposure in childhood and adolescence.

Now, researchers in the Department of Respiratory Medicine in St. James’s Hospital in Dublin have discovered levels of bronchitis in children as young as 13 which are linked to being exposed to passive smoking, mostly by their parents.

Lung growth and development in children are adversely affected by passive smoking, and it has been estimated that in children whose parents smoke, the dose of nicotine is “equivalent to the children themselves actively smoking 20-80 cigarettes a year.”

The study of over 3,000 teen-agers found 19 percent actively smoked, with significantly more girls taking up the habit than boys. There was an increased incidence of bronchitis among these young smokers but symptoms were also present in a percentage of youngsters who were inhaling second hand smoke. The study was carried out in 1995 and repeated in 1998 and it showed continued high levels of smoking among the teen-agers. “The reasons for this is unclear, however a high level of parental smoking may play an important factor as it has been shown to be associated with increased levels of adolescent smoking,” the study states.

Of 989 non-smoking teen-agers exposed to passive smoking in the 1998 study, 88.9 percent were exposed to their parents’ cigarettes, with the remainder due to other relatives, the Irish Medical Journal reported. It pointed out that it is likely that some of the smokers are also exposed to passive smoking in the home and this may have an additional effect on bronchitis symptoms development. The report also noted that “for smokers of half to one packet per day the risk of developing bronchitis is 40-50 percent and at two packs per day the risk is 70-80 percent. The findings also raise fears about the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in later life. The authors expressed concern about the increase in smoking among females as airway function ill-effects are more prominent in females, and smoking while pregnant can have effects on the baby in the womb.

“The results of this study of significantly increased levels of bronchitis in young teen-age smokers refutes the misconception that bronchitis develops many years after starting the smoking habit.”

The authors added, “in addition, the higher level of bronchitis symptoms in non-smoking children exposed to passive smoking is also of concern and would support the public health advice that no smoke exposure is best.”

I’ll end with my age-old advice. If you smoke and have children, “don’t smoke in the house!

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