Study: passive smoking a big problem

smokeSmoke.Photo: pixabay.com

New figures show that 6 percent of non-smokers are exposed to secondhand smoke at home.

Fathers who smoked when mother’s became pregnant, can make children susceptible to asthma later in life.

– This is both surprising and frightening, said Dr. Anne Kristin Mills Møller Fell of Telemark Hospital in Skien.

She leads a study that was conducted in Telemark for between 16 and 50 years. Of a total of 8,346 non-smokers 504 responded that they are exposed to secondhand smoke at home, wrote the hospital in a statement.

Respiratory conditions

Those reports of respiratory ailments show chronic coughs, coughs with mucus and saliva, and that they often wake up at night because of heavy breathing. These are people who have never smoked themselves, who still get smoking-related ailments.

– This shows us who work with patients with respiratory problems, and it makes a strong impression on us when we meet people who are seriously ill because of someone around them smoking, says Moller Fell.

Asthma

Meanwhile, a study from the University of Bergen shows that asthma is three times as common among children who have fathers who smoked in their youth, than children of fathers who never smoked. The study included 24,000 children.

– Children of fathers who smoked before conception had over three times higher risk of asthma compared to those who had fathers who have never smoked, says Professor Cecilie Svane at the Centre for International Health, Department of Global Health and Community Medicine at the University of Bergen.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today

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