Smoking near children may lead to behavioral disorders

While the physical health consequences of tobacco exposure are widely known, a new study reveals that passive smoking is also linked with a risk of behavioural repercussions in children, particularly emotional and conduct disorders. Researchers from Inserm and Pierre and Marie Curie University, in collaboration with the university hospitals of six French cities, found that this association is strongest for children who were exposed while still in utero and during very early infancy. Behavioural issues, on the other hand, manifest when the child is of school-going age.

The study, which appeared in the journal PLOS ONE, have analysed data secondhand smoke exposure of more than 5,000 primary school children. To assess prenatal and postnatal exposure to tobacco smoke in the participants’ homes, researchers asked parents to complete a standardised questionnaire. The parents were also asked to accomplish the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, or SDQ, used to assess the behavioural and psychosocial functioning of the children.

Upon analysing the data, the team says that 21 percent of the children were found to have emotional disorders associated with exposure to environmental tobacco smoke during both the prenatal and postnatal periods. Conduct disorders are also associated with secondhand smoke exposure in these children, they researchers add. While the association also exists in cases of prenatal or postnatal exposure alone, they report that it is less pronounced.

According to the team, these observations seem to confirm previous studies carried out in animals, which revealed nicotine contained in tobacco smoke may have a neurotoxic effect on the brain. During pregnancy, nicotine in tobacco smoke stimulates acetylcholine receptors, and causes structural changes in the brain. In the first months of life, exposure to tobacco smoke generates a protein imbalance that leads to altered neuronal growth.

Secondhand smoke is referred to the exhaled smoke from smokers and side stream smoke from the burning end of a cigarette, cigar or pipe. It is reported to contain more than 7,000 substances, including over 70 compounds that are known to cause cancer. Health problems associated with environmental tobacco smoke are widely documented, such as asthma, lung cancer, ear infections and other chronic respiratory illnesses, such as bronchitis and pneumonia.

According to the American Lung Association, the health consequences of secondhand smoke are most clearly seen in children because they are still developing physically, have higher breathing rates than adults, and have little control over their indoor environments. Children who are most exposed to passive smoking are found to have the greatest risk of suffering from the damaging health effects.

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