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Can secondhand smoke hurt kids' grades?
Children and teenagers exposed to secondhand smoke at home may get poorer grades than their peers from smoke-free homes, a study of Hong Kong students suggests.
Secondhand smoke is a well-known health threat to children, being linked to increased risks of asthma, as well as bronchitis, pneumonia and other respiratory infections. Studies have also found a connection between smoking during pregnancy and higher risks of childhood behavior problems and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Some research has also found that children exposed to cigarette smoke in the womb or at home may trail their peers when it comes to cognitive abilities like reasoning and remembering. But whether secondhand smoke itself is to blame remains unclear.
In the new study, researchers found that among 23,000 11- to 20-year-old non-smoking students, the one-third who lived with at least one smoker were more likely to describe their own school performance as "poor."
Of students who said they were exposed to smoking at home at least five days a week, 23 percent said their school performance was poor compared with their classmates'. That rate was 20 percent among kids who had less frequent secondhand-smoke exposure at home, and 17 percent among those from smoke-free homes.
The researchers were able to account for certain other factors, like parents' education levels and the type of housing -- both markers of socioeconomic status. They found that students' exposure to secondhand smoke, itself, was linked to a 14 percent to 28 percent greater risk of poor school performance, depending on how frequent the exposure was.
Dr. Sai-Yin Ho and colleagues at the University of Hong Kong report the results in the Journal of Pediatrics.
The findings do not prove that secondhand smoke was the reason for the poorer grades.
The study had a number of limitations, including its reliance on students' ratings of their own academic performance and exposure to tobacco smoke. Future studies should include objective measures of secondhand-smoke exposure, using urine samples, as well as official school records, Ho's team writes.
The researchers also could not account for the full range of factors that might be related to both secondhand-smoke exposure and children's school performance. They lacked information, for example, on whether students were exposed to smoking in the womb.
Still, Ho's team notes, it is biologically plausible that the many toxic compounds in tobacco smoke -- including lead, arsenic, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide -- could affect children's cognitive abilities.
Regardless of whether secondhand smoke does hurt kids' school performance, there are many established reasons for parents to quit smoking and limit their children's exposure to smokers.
These findings, the researchers write, offer another potential reason for parents to "eliminate smoking at home" and warn their children to avoid secondhand exposure.
Source: Reuters - 29 July 2010
Doctors plead for ban on cigarette machines
Greater Manchester's top doctors are calling on Health Secretary Andrew Lansley not to scrap a ban on cigarette vending machines brought in by the previous government.
Health minister Ann Milton says she intends to review the new regulations which would also have prevented shopkeepers putting cigarettes on display.
The new rules were supposed to start taking effect in 2011 and be fully in force by 2013.
Dr Peter Elton, director of public health for Bury, has written to the minister on behalf of the region's 10 public health directors.
He said: "These regulations will protect our children whilst not preventing any adult from buying cigarettes. It will greatly reduce the chances of children developing a smoking habit and being addicted to cigarettes by the time they become adults.
"We need these regulations to put tobacco out of sight and out of the reach of children and point of sale displays are a form of tobacco marketing to children and encourage them to take up smoking. Vending machines are a major source of cigarettes to under-age smokers."
Latest figures show smoking is responsible for 14 deaths in Greater Manchester every single day.
Studies show if there was a one per cent reduction in smoking, it would save 200 lives a year as well as £3m in health costs for local NHS services.
In response to a written question earlier this month Ms Milton said: "Smoking is the biggest preventable cause of death in England. Discussions are taking place across government to decide how best to tackle this issue in the context of our focus on public health, and our priorities given the challenges facing business competition and costs. These considerations include the policy on display of tobacco products and sales from tobacco vending machines."
Pat Karney, the director of health alliance Tobacco Free Greater Manchester, said: "Smoking comes with a host of hidden dangers that attribute to region-wide mortality figures and in Greater Manchester, up to 5,000 people die from smoking-related illnesses each year which include coronary heart disease, stroke and cancer.
"Almost all these people started smoking as children.
"Over 80 per cent of smokers start before the age of 18 and it is illegal to sell tobacco to under 18s."
Source: Manchester Evening News, 27 July 2010
Smoking may worsen outcome of pregnancy complication
A new study suggests that smokers who develop preeclampsia during pregnancy are at particular risk of suffering the complications associated with the disorder -- including preterm delivery, low birth weight and stillbirth.
The findings may not sound surprising, but they present something of a paradox, as past studies have linked smoking to a reduced risk of developing preeclampsia in the first place.
Preeclampsia is a syndrome marked by a sudden increase in blood pressure after the 20th week of pregnancy and a buildup of protein in the urine due to stress on the kidneys. Most women with preeclampsia deliver a healthy baby, but the condition can develop into a life-threatening condition called eclampsia, which can cause seizures or coma.
Preeclampsia can also slow the growth of the fetus and increase the risks of preterm birth, placental abruption -- where the placenta separates from the uterine wall before delivery of the newborn, potentially leading to heavy bleeding that can be life-threatening to mother and child.
A number of studies have found that pregnant smokers are less likely than non-smokers to develop preeclampsia, for reasons that are not yet clear.
But these latest findings, reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, suggest that once preeclampsia develops, smoking exacerbates the risk of complications, according to Elizabeth Miller and colleagues at the Ottawa Hospital in Canada.
Using a database with information on more than 300,000 births between 2004 and 2006, the researchers found that women who smoked during pregnancy had a slightly lower rate of preeclampsia -- 1.2 percent, versus 1.5 percent among non-smokers.
But among women with preeclampsia, smokers were more likely to have serious complications.
For example, 9 percent of smokers had a baby who was small for gestational age -- smaller than the norm for the baby's sex and the week of pregnancy during which he or she was born. That compared with 5 percent of non-smokers who had preeclampsia.
Similarly, just over 3 percent of smokers with preeclampsia suffered placental abruption, versus 0.7 percent of non-smokers with the condition. The rates of stillbirth were 1.8 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.
When Miller's team factored in variables like the mother's age and how many pregnancies she'd had (preeclampsia is more common in first-time mothers), smokers with preeclampsia were three to six times more likely to have a stillbirth, preterm delivery, placental abruption or undersized newborn than non-smokers without preeclampsia.
Non-smokers with preeclampsia also had elevated risks, but not of the magnitude seen among smokers.
Despite the fact that smoking is linked to a relatively lower risk of developing preeclampsia, experts have always stressed that the risks of smoking during pregnancy -- including miscarriage, poor fetal growth and preterm delivery -- far outweigh the potential benefit.
The current findings reinforce the importance of quitting smoking during, or preferably before, pregnancy, according to Miller's team. They also indicate that smokers with preeclampsia should have their pregnancies closely monitored, and be offered particularly intensive smoking-cessation counseling.
It is hard to explain why smoking might protect against preeclampsia development yet worsen its outcome, according to the researchers.
But, they note, cigarettes do contain substances that inhibit blood vessels from constricting, which may help protect against preeclampsia. On the other hand, smoking also reduces levels of hormone-like substances called prostacyclins, which help dilate blood vessels. In women who have preeclampsia, Miller's team speculates, smoking may exacerbate any reduction in oxygen getting to the fetus.
Source: Reuters News, 27 July 2010
Cigarettes on display ‘more likely’ to encourage smoking
Young people feel more like smoking if they see cigarettes on sale in shops, research showed today, as the UK Government looks set to overturn a ban on displaying tobacco.
Point-of-sale tobacco displays in shops are "cool, fun, and attractive" and are likely to encourage smoking, said children questioned in a study.
It comes as the government considers whether to reverse a ban on cigarette vending machines and on shops displaying rows of cigarettes.
A law was passed by MPs in October when Labour was in power but the regulations needed to implement the changes have not come into force. The 2009 Health Act would ban cigarette vending machines and put tobacco out of sight in all shops by the end of 2013.
Today, health campaigners called on the government not to scrap the law, saying children's health must come first.
Newsagents have said the proposal could cost them £250million to implement while Conservative MPs have questioned stopping shops displaying tobacco during a recession.
Cancer Research UK's director of tobacco control Jean King said: "We urge the government to confirm their commitment to protect our children, now and in the future, from tobacco."
Today's research, from Stirling University and published in the journal Health Promotion Practice, found children thought it was easy to buy tobacco and shopkeepers did not always ask for ID. Some 70 youngsters, age 11 to 16 from Scotland were asked for their views on tobacco, with one 15-year-old smoker saying there were few checks. He said: "In most shops, especially corner shops, it is easy to get cigarettes. I would be smoking less if they were really checking."
Others said point-of-sale tobacco displays were "obvious" within shops because of the "massive display". The youngsters supported the ban on smoking in public places and frowned upon smoking indoors around children.
Lead researcher Dr Crawford Moodie said: "The responses show clear support from young people for tobacco control measures and add weight to the need to remove the flashy shop displays."
The Department of Health said: "Discussions are taking place across government to decide how best to tackle smoking in the context of our focus on public health, and our priorities given the challenges facing business competition and costs. These considerations include the policy on display of tobacco products."
Research out today from the NHS Information Centre shows a drop in the number of 11 to 15-year-olds smoking, drinking and taking drugs.
A survey in England found the number who had tried smoking at least once was 29% - the lowest figure since the survey began in 1982 when it was 53%. The report said the drop was a continuation of the decline from 39% in 2006, when smoke-free legislation was passed.
British Heart Foundation director of policy and communications Betty McBride said: "While it is good news fewer children are turning to cigarettes and a lifetime of health problems, this report illustrates the importance of stopping youngsters smoking at an early age."
National Federation of Retail Newsagents national president Parminder Singh said last week: "There is absolutely no reason for the government to press ahead with this ban."
Source: The Press and Journal - 23 July 2010
Toddler gets smoke in his face as actress mum enjoys a roll-up
With her young son only inches away, Billie Piper takes a deep drag on her roll-up and blows smoke in his face.
The 27-year-old actress made great play of the fact that she gave up cigarettes while pregnant with Winston, now aged 21 months. But she appeared to be making up for lost time during a visit to a pub garden with her actor husband Laurence Fox and another couple.
Initially, either Fox or his wife would take turns looking after Winston while the other moved away to puff on a roll-up.
But as the afternoon progressed they became more relaxed and eventually, as the picture shows, made no effort to distance the toddler from the tobacco cloud.
Earlier this year former pop singer Miss Piper, who went on to star in Doctor Who and Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, admitted that her greatest vices were 'roll-up cigarettes and red wine'.
She added: 'I didn't smoke through my pregnancy, and I thought I did really well not to for nine months.
When Winston was born, I decided I didn't want to smoke cigarettes any more, as they are full of chemicals, so I turned to roll-ups instead. I do love them.'
The damaging effects of passive smoking are well documented.
In March, a report from the Royal College of Physicians revealed that tens of thousands of children in the UK every year develop asthma, chest infections and ear problems because they are exposed to smoke from their parents' cigarettes.
This led to a call for a ban on smoking in cars, and for the ban on smoking in enclosed spaces to be extended to parks, playgrounds and other areas where children congregate.
Martin Dockrell, director of research for the charity Action on Smoking and Health, said: 'There are two good reasons not to smoke in front of children.
'First, especially in enclosed areas second-hand smoke seriously damages a child's health and even risks causing a cot death.
'The second reason is that the more a child sees adults around them smoking the more likely they are to try smoking themselves as they get older.
'In fact only one in five adults smokes but children often overestimate this and the more they do, the more they are likely to smoke themselves.'
Source: Daily Mail, 21 July 2010
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