New Study - Smoking Parents Hurt Healthy Kids' Lungs

Smoking parents are hurting their healthy kids according to an article written by Megan Rauscher of Reuters Health. The article, Rauscher looks at a study reported at the American Thoracic Society's meeting this past weekend that indicates children of parents who smoke may not show symptoms of breathing problems, but may show reduced lung function. The reduced lung function could get worse with continued exposure to the secondhand smoke.

Dr. Bert Arets from the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands studied 244 children, aged 4 to 12 who did not have any other lung disease or breathing problem, like asthma. Numerous studies previous to this looked at the effects of secondhand smoke on children, but none included a sample of children who were all free of other breathing problems. Arets tells Reuters that their study "shows that disease-free and symptom-free does not mean normal lung function." Aret worries that with the trend to ban smoking in public places, parents are likely to smoke more often at home, causing greater harm to their children's health. The university plans to publish a second report in a couple of years based on a larger study of 2000 healthy children.

According to the American Lung Association, secondhand smoke has additional harmful effects on children. Research reported on their web site indicates that 150,000 to 300,000 children under 18 are treated for lower respiratory tract infections each year. 7,500 to 15,000 are hospitalized from these infections. In addition, 1,900 to 2,700 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) cases in the U.S. are caused each year by secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke can aggravate symptoms of asthma and cause fluid buildup in the ears. These effects in children result in over 1.6 million doctors visits each year.The latest 2007 report on Estimated Prevalence & Incidence of Lung Disease can be found at the Data & Statistics page of the American Lung Association. The current Surgeon General's report reminds us that there is no level of secondhand smoke that is risk-free to a child's or adult's health.