Passive Smoking is bad for Children.

Published on January 29, 2009 8:48 AM

Every day passive cheap cigarettes smoking attacks more and more children, and not only one or two but millions of children. Children exposed to passive smoking are likely to learn worse at school than their peers, research suggested.

Researchers found that even low levels of tobacco smoke in the home is link to lower test results for reading and maths.

The US Children's Environmental Health Center team found, among nearly 4,400 children, that the greater the exposure to passive smoking was, the worse the decline of learning was.

The study was based on data gathered between1988 and 1994 to give a snapshot of the health of people in the US at that time. For to collect more information about children’s health in this period, scientists measured levels of cotinine, a substance produced when nicotine is broken down by the body. Cotinine can be measured in blood, urine, saliva and hair.

Children aged between six and 16 were only included in the analysis if their blood cotinine levels were at or below 15 mg/ml - a level consistent with environmental tobacco smoke exposure.

Then they looked at the children's cognitive and academic abilities in relation to skills such as maths, reading, logic and reasoning.

At the end of the study scientists found that even low levels of exposure to tobacco can impair brain function.

These findings were one of many causes why in many states cigarette smoking was banned.

But researchers are worried that the new legislation will not protect children against exposure in their own homes.