Second hand smoke damages childrens' hearts

Jun 5 2007

Researchers in Finland who looked at the effect of smoking on children between the ages of 8 and 11, say even small amounts of secondhand tobacco smoke can damage a child's arteries.

Their research supports the growing body of evidence on the harmful affects of exposure to smoking.

The Finnish study found that exposure to second-hand smoke can harm the function of the arteries in children and even just a little exposure to smoke at home or in the public environment can be harmful to the cardiovascular system of healthy schoolchildren.

Rather than rely on parents reporting on their smoking habits the Finnish team measured the blood of the children for a substance called cotinine, which the body produces as it breaks down the nicotine in tobacco smoke.

The cotinine levels in the children were measured annually in about 400 children between the ages of 8 and 11.

At age 11 the children underwent high-resolution ultrasound tests of the brachial artery in the arm to assess how well the lining of the blood vessels work.

The children fell into three groups based on their cotinine concentrations: 229 children in the non-detectable cotinine group; 134 children in the low-cotinine group; 39 children in the high-cotinine group.

Katariina Kallio, of the Research Centre of Applied and Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Turku in Finland, who led the study, says the ultrasounds revealed a significantly lowered endothelial function, which is a measure of arterial health, in the group of children with the highest cotinine concentrations.

Experts say if secondhand smoke can cause such damage on the cardiovascular system of children as young as eleven, the effects on adults working 40 hours a week in a smoke-filled environment will be much greater; they are calling for smoke-free workplace environments to protect citizens from the deadly effects of secondhand smoke.

The study is published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.