Children Suffer Health Damage, Parents Smoking

Children whose parents smoke could suffer irreversible damage to their health well into adulthood, a new study has found. Researchers say those exposed to their parents' smoking have less elasticity in their arteries, an early indicator of poor cardiovascular health. The Menzies Research Institute Tasmania is involved in the international study, the first to look at the long-term effects of parental smoking on children's blood vessel health. "It seems to have a direct effect," research fellow Dr Seana Gall told reporters on Wednesday. "The chemicals in cigarette smoke interact with the lining of the blood vessels and that seems to be causing an inability of them to expand and contract properly. "We know the elastic ability of an artery is actually linked to the risk of having heart attacks and strokes when you're older." Researchers in Australia and Finland have conducted a Seven Up style experiment, following children first examined 20 years ago who are now aged in their mid-30s. Whether on not they had taken up smoking themselves, worse results were returned by those exposed to cigarettes. "The effect was seen up to 27 years later, suggesting a long-term and irreversible effect of passive smoking in childhood on the health of arteries," Dr Gall said. The research team will continue to follow the group into middle and old age to determine whether heart attack and stroke are directly related to parents' smoking. Second-hand smoke kills more than 600,000 non-smokers worldwide each year, the Institute said, while 40 per cent of the world's children are regularly exposed. Dr Gall said parents and those considering parenthood should be trying to quit. "The highest prevalence of smoking is still seen in those age groups that correspond with people first becoming parents, so that's still a concern and we'd want to get the prevalence down in those groups particularly," she said.