Passive smoking can cause lung disease, study warns
A new study has found an alarmingly high level of bronchitis symptoms in children exposed to cigarette smoke and supports public health advice that no smoke exposure is best.
One sixth of lung cancer cases in non-smoking adults can be attributed to exposure to cigarette smoke in childhood or adolescence.
The study, published in the Irish Medical Journal, contradicts a recently-published US study carried in the British Medical Journal claiming passive smoking may not be a killer.
The Irish study found that around 46% of non-smoking children are exposed to passive smoke in the home a situation that increased bronchitis by around 60%.
Research already shows that chronic bronchitis is the harbinger of the development of chronic lung disease. Another alarming finding was that bronchitis develops in teenage smokers not many years after they start smoking.
One of the authors of the study, Dublin-based respiratory consultant, Dr Pat Manning, said it was known that smokers would develop bronchitis the question was when.
"We now find that teenagers are developing these symptoms from a very early age," Dr Manning said. He added that smoking also stunted lung development reducing capacity by as much as 20%.
The study of two groups of around 3,000 children aged between 13 and 14 years in 1995 and 1998 also found that the numbers of teenagers smoking had dropped from 20.6% in 1995 to 19% in 1998.
The reason for the decrease is unclear but it may be a reflection of anti-smoking strategies.
Dr Manning said the study also suggests that such strategies should focus on primary school children, as once they started smoking, it was difficult to quit.
