We know that children exposed to passive smoking run multiple health risks and that they are twice as likely to be hospitalized for respiratory problems than children who are not exposed to tobacco. A new study published in the European heart journal shows that passive smoking also causes lasting damage to children’s arteries by causing their blood vessels to age prematurely.
Passive smoking: a risk when both parents smoke
For this study on passive smoking, researchers at the University of Tasmania (Australia) and the Universities of Turku and Tampere (Finland) followed more than 3,700 children aged 3 to 18 with parents who smoke. Once they became adults, they had their neck carotid artery ultrasound to estimate the thickness, which can help find out if there is a risk of atherosclerosis (an obstruction of the blood vessels).
These measurements showed that the blood vessels of those whose parents both smoked had aged prematurely. They estimated that the effects of smoking exposure of 2 parents age the vascular age of the child from exactly 3.3 years to adulthood.
For researchers, this study not only confirms the harmful effects of passive smoking, but also confirms the fact that cardiovascular diseases (such as atherosclerosis or stroke) can originate in childhood.
