Kids exposed to passive smoking have higher nicotine levels

LONDON - Children exposed to second hand smoke at home have higher levels of nicotine in their bodies, new research shows.

The research, published in ‘Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention’, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, supports the initiative for a home smoking ban, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

The multi-nation study found hair nicotine concentrations were higher in children exposed to second hand smoke at home, and the younger the children the higher the concentration, Science Daily reported.

“This study provides adequate evidence to support home smoking bans, particularly in homes with small children,” said Sungroul Kim, a research associate at the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Kim and colleagues used hair nicotine concentrations as a biomarker of second hand smoke exposure, because it is less affected by day-to-day exposure variation compared to the presence of nicotine in other body fluid samples.

They studied 1,284 children from 31 countries in Latin America, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Among the houses with high nicotine concentrations in the indoor air, women had three times the level of hair nicotine concentrations and children had a 6.8-fold increase in hair nicotine concentrations.

Children who were younger than six years old had 12 percent higher levels of nicotine concentration than those who were older.

Those who spent more than 19 hours a day at home had 15 percent higher levels of nicotine than those who spent less than 19 hours a day.

“Clearly the younger children are the most at risk; this is a call to action on a global level,” said Kim.