Kids Living In Apartments Are More Exposed To Tobacco Smoke, Study Says

December 14th, 2010 - 8:25 pm ICT by GD  

By Gina Gomez
smoakeDec 14, (THAINDIAN NEWS) A new study has highlighted rather interesting details about the exposure of kids to tobacco after the findings of the research were published in the online edition of the journal Pediatrics on Monday. According to the study, kids who live in apartment building have higher amount of tobacco byproducts in their bloodstream compared to those who live in houses. The most interesting finding of the study was the fact that the level of tobacco in children residing in flats was found to be more even in the absence of any active smokers in the apartment.

In order to undertake the study, researchers evaluated the data that was available from the 2001-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey while parents were also quizzed about where they lived and their smoking patterns. At the same, as many as 5,000 kids underwent physical examination during which their blood as well as urine samples were analyzed by the researchers. After the study, the researchers reached the conclusion that around 85 per cent of children hailing from families where no one smoked inside the flats, surprisingly had blood proteins in their body which suggested that they were exposed to cigarette smoke. However, in case of kids living in houses, only 70 per cent were seen to have nicotine byproducts in their bloodstream.

While responding to the results of the research, Dr. Jonathan Winickoff who is associated with the MassGeneral Hospital for Children and is also one of the main author’s of the study pointed out that this is the very first research to highlight the fact that kids living in multi-unit housing are more exposed to tobacco smoke even if no one smokes in their flat.

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