I grew up in a house filled with smoke. Both of my parents smoked. They smoked everywhere - in the house, in the car, in restaurants - you name it. If my parents had that persistent, nagging itch for for some nicotine satisfaction, they lit up, regardless of where they were or who was around. I always wondered whether those plumes of smoke might impact my health. I later learned that second-hand smoke was linked in children to increased risk of asthma, as well as bronchitis, pneumonia and other respiratory infections. My biological mother never smoked with me in the womb but my step-mom smoked while pregnant. Smoking while pregnant results in higher risk of the child having childhood behavior problems and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. I knew all of that. What I was amazed to learn today is that childhood second hand smoking exposure results in impaired performance in school. Check out the article in the Journal of Pediatrics.
The study was done in Hong Kong among 23,000 11- to 20-year-old non-smoking students. The study was split between youngsters who lived with at least one smoker and those who did not. The students rated their school performance. The level of rating one's school performance as "poor" compared to classmates varied with exposure to second-hand smoke. 23% of students who were exposed to smoking at home at least five days a week rated their performance as poor. That rate was 20% for students who had less exposure. The rate was only 17% for students who lived in non-smoking households. The researchers accounted for certain factors like parents’ education levels and the type of housing the students lived in.
The study was not perfect. The researchers depended on the student's self-assessment of academic performance and exposure to smoke in the home. Future studies can do a better job of measuring school performance by, for example, looking at official school records. They can also make objective measurements of exposure to smoke by, for example, testing urine. The study was a positive step forward in learning about the effects of second hand smoke on youngsters. A lot more work needs to be done.
I did not have trouble in school growing up but my siblings did. A number of things conspired to harm their ability to excel in school. It is troubling to learn that my parents' smoking might have been one additional factor. Parents really should read this study. It ought to be a criminal act for a parent or anyone else for that matter to smoke around a child. Let's see what the future brings.
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Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).Butt Out is a project of Breathe California, funded by the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project, which works to get tobacco money out of LGBT community organizations in San Francisco. We also educate the public about the hazards of smoking and about smoking cessation
