PASSIVE SMOKING is a serious problem. Those who light up on a daily basis are well aware of fatal risks they are subjecting themselves to, and still choose to dodge these fears mentally. But what about others around them, especially children?
They are given no such choice while the scientific evidence for developmental dangers in passive smoking keeps stacking up. In a new finding scientists claim that teenagers exposed to second-hand smoke are at high risk of losing their hearing ability. The team evaluated over 1,500 teens, tested their blood for nicotine metabolites and then screened them for hearing loss.
They found that those who tested positive for passive smoke exposure were more likely to suffer from sensorineural hearing loss. “It’s the type of hearing loss that usually tends to occur as one gets older, or among children born with congenital deafness,” one of the authors said. Their research concluded that “tobacco smoke is independently associated with an almost two-fold increase in risk of hearing loss among adolescents.”
Damage to sensory perception can have a direct effect to the child’s long-term psychology. Results of a large survey linking second-hand smoke to ADHD-attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children were published in the journal Paediatrics. Not only does second-hand smoke harm children’s health directly but can also impair them before they are even born.