KIDS EXPOSED TO SECONDHAND SMOKE MISS MORE SCHOOL
Children who live with smokers miss more school due to illness than those who live in households with non-smokers, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.
The September issue of Pediatrics highlighted data from the 2005 National Health Interview Survey, whichrevealed how many days of school children aged 6 to11 missed and the reason for their absence. Children living with one or more smokers at home missed one to two more days of school per year on average than those who lived with non-smokers. The research suggests that families could reduce absenteeism by 24 to 34 percent if smoking was eliminated from households.
According to the study, one third of children in the United States live with someone who smokes. Among children aged 3 to 11, at least 56 percent have detectable levels of serum cotinine, a chemical in cigarettes that indicates tobacco smoke exposure. Cotinine is a breakdown of nicotine and can be measured by analyzing levels in the blood, urine or saliva. Researchers say this establishes a link between household smoking and two specific respiratory illnesses.
"Kids living with people smoking in the home were more likely to have ear infections and chest colds. Among kids who were living with smokers, a quarter to one-third of the days they missed from school can be attributed to the fact that they live with someone who smokes in the home," said Dr. Douglas Levy, the study's principal investigator and Assistant in Health Care Policy at the Mongan Institute for Health Policy.
An increase in illness and school absenteeism were not the only consequences of smoking at home. Levy says there is a financial burden as well because parents or other caregivers must take off work to care for sick children. "When kids are home from school, particularly young kids, the cost overall is $227 million dollars per year. All due to the extra days that we see kids missing school because of secondhand smoke exposure," said Levy.
More detailed information about kids exposed to second can be found here.
