(Image source: Test Country)

BY LEXA DECKERT

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Everyone knows the mantra ‘smoking can kill’ -- but now a study suggests secondhand smoke can also cause behavioral and learning disabilities. WebMD quotes one researcher as saying...

“We found that children who are exposed to secondhand smoke in the home have a 50% increased odds of having two or three of these common neurobehavioral disorders.”


Those three include ADHD, learning disabilities, and behavioral disorders.
International Business Times has more detail.


“The survey called, National Survey of Children's Health, was conducted over the phone from April 2007 to July 2008. The sample size of the survey was 91,642 children from birth through 17 years old. The study estimates approximately five million children under the age of 12 are exposed to secondhand smoking at home.” 

The researchers were not only concerned with how their findings effected the children, but also the burden on the health care system. Here’s some numbers from CNN.


“The annual medical cost associated with treating a child with a neurobehavioral disorder is about $14,576 per individual, or a national total of about $9.2 billion each year...”


But according to a study done by the same group, growing up in smoking households does seem to deter children from becoming smokers later on. Test Country reports...


“It was found that among children between the ages of 8 and 13 who lived with at least one adult smoker, those who found the smell of cigarette smoke ‘unpleasant’ or ‘gross’ were 78 percent less likely to become smokers themselves.”


So what to do about the problem? Medpage Today has some recommendations.


“One strategy would be to encourage requirements for no-smoking policies in public housing, as has been recommended by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In addition, tobacco control efforts should be heightened for vulnerable segments of the population.”

Researchers were sure to point out, though, that the study shows a link between secondhand smoking and the conditions, not that one caused the other.
 

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