Spare a thought for our children. Smoking kills.
Cherish your children.
Passive Smoking and Children.
The Negative Effects of Secondhand Smoke on Children.
Unfortunately it is not just adults who are at risk to the adverse effects of passive smoking. Children and newborn babies are particularly at risk too.
Young children and toddlers are especially sensitive to the effects of secondhand smoke, due to the fact that their bodies are still growing and developing and they breathe faster then adults and therefore may inhale more smoke.
Research has shown that children, who grow up in a smoky household, where one or both parents smoke, have twice the amount of respiratory and lung disorders, and in some cases they even have to be hospitalised.
These children are usually absent from school more often than children who grow up in a smoke-free home and some studies have even suggested that children who are exposed to passive smoking are more likely to have behavioural problems and that they may not develop mentally as quickly as other children.
More recent studies have shown that exposure to passive smoking affects a child's behaviour and their learning abilities. Children from smoking homes scored lower in maths, reading, logic and reasoning tests and showed a more difficult and conflictive attitude towards their teachers and peers.
Asthma is a severe breathing disorder that is caused by the lungs not working to their full potential. When a person suffers an asthma attack they can experience shortness of breath, coughing, pressure or tightness in their chest, or wheezing and in children these symptoms can be much worse. Children with asthma also suffer more frequent attacks if they are exposed to tobacco smoke in the home.
Children with asthma who live in homes where one parent smokes are twice as likely, than children with asthma whose parents do not smoke, to take time off school due to a respiratory illness. If both the parents smoke, then the asthmatic children are four times as likely to be absent from school.
Studies show that even if a child does not suffer from asthma, but both their parents smoke, they will have a 40% higher chance of being absent from school due to a breathing illness.
Even breathing in very small amounts of tobacco smoke could set off a severe attack in children with asthma and these attacks would be worse than those suffered by children with asthma who are not exposed to tobacco smoke. Studies have shown that exposure to secondhand smoke can lead to the development of asthma in children who were not born with it.
Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home:
- are twice as likely to suffer from bronchitis, pneumonia or bronchiolitis. In the US, secondhand smoke has been linked to up to 300,000 cases of bronchitis and pneumonia in small children each year.
- will have less developed lungs that have a reduced ability to function well.
- will suffer severe asthma attacks if they are already asthmatic and more of them.
- have a higher risk of developing asthma if they were not born with it.
- are more likely to be hospitalised before they reach their 2nd birthday.
- will suffer from more colds, coughs and sore throats.
- are more likely to suffer ear infections, fluid in the ears, chronic middle ear disease or "glue ear", which could lead to some loss of hearing. Many children will need to have the fluid from their ears surgically drained as a result of passive smoking.
- could suffer from possible cardiovascular disorders.
- will have a higher risk of developing cancer as an adult.
- will suffer from some loss of smell.
- are more likely to have been born with a low birth weight. Low birth weight babies are less healthy in general and can experience negative health problems all the way through to adulthood. Low birth weight as a baby has been linked to suffering a stroke as an adult, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease and diabetes.
- are more likely to die of cot death. If a mother smokes, the risk of the baby suffering a cot death is twice as high.
- are at risk of developing meningitis.
- will be absent from school more often due to various illnesses caused from breathing in the tobacco smoke.
- will take longer to recover from the above illnesses.
