Everyone knows that smoking can cause some very serious health problems. In the past few years, bars, restaurants, and other public places have banned smoking in recognition of the health risks that come from breathing in secondhand smoke. A study indicates that secondhand smoke could increase a child’s risk of developing mental and behavioral disorders.
A study was done by researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The researchers looked at around 3,000 children, from all across the United States. The children in the study ranged between eight years old and fifteen years old.
A blood sample was taken from each child so that researchers could determine which of the children in the study had been exposed to secondhand smoke. The looked to see how much of cotinine was in the blood samples. Cotinine is something that forms when the nicotine in tobacco breaks down.
Researchers considered the children who had the highest levels of cotinine in their blood to be smokers themselves. I find that to be sad, that a child could have enough nicotine in their blood that it is pretty much equivalent to if that child was lighting up cigarettes and actually smoking them. Since the researchers were looking for a sample of children who had been exposed to secondhand smoke, they removed this group from the study. It was the group of children who had the second highest levels of cotinine in their blood that the researchers considered to have been exposed to secondhand smoke.
All of the children were interviewed, in order to see which children showed signs of a mental or behavioral disorder. The results of the study showed that boys who were exposed to secondhand smoke were more likely to exhibit symptoms of ADHD, depression, anxiety, and conduct disorder than the boys who were not exposed to secondhand smoke. Girls who had been exposed to secondhand smoke showed more symptoms of ADHD and anxiety than did the girls in the study who were not exposed to secondhand smoke.
This study does not prove that secondhand smoke causes mental and behavioral disorders in children. However, it would be surprising if further studies resulted in a different conclusion. This study is similar to another study that was published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine. The other study was conducted in the UK, and showed a link between exposure to secondhand smoke and poor mental health in 900 children. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, 60% of children are exposed to secondhand smoke.
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