C H I L D R E N ' S H E A LT H
preventive measures
nicotine’s danger to kids lurks everywhere
MELINDA MAHABEE-GITTENS MD, MS,
is a physician in the
Emergency Department at Cincinnati Children’s.
New Cincinnati Children’s research shows the potential risk of “third-hand” smoking
W
Kids who were brought to the emergency department at Cincinnati Children’s for an illness possibly related to second-hand smoke exposure, like difficulty breathing.
WH O:
hen kids touch items or surfaces contaminated by cigarette smoke, they may carry significant levels of nicotine on their hands. Even when no one is actively smoking at the time.
Melinda Mahabee-Gittens, a doctor who works in Emergency Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s.
That’s the main finding of a study by researchers at Cincinnati Children’s and San Diego State University. It’s the first study to show that “third-hand” smoke is a danger to kids. It was published in the journal Tobacco Control.
Researchers found that children with significant nicotine on the hands even showed evidence of tobacco exposure in their saliva.
“Parents may think that not smoking around their child is enough, but this is not the case,” says lead researcher
How the study was done
“These findings emphasize that the only safe way to protect children from smoke exposure is to quit smoking and ban smoking in the home,” she says.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, exposure of this kind can lead to all sorts of harm to kids’ health, including ear infections and asthma attacks.
AGE:
The average was 5 years old.
WH Y AT-RISK: All of the children had parents who were smokers. All parents consented to the study. WH EN :
April to September, 2016
Researchers used specially designed hand wipes to extract nicotine from the kids’ hands, and took saliva samples to look for corresponding levels of cotinine, a metabolite connected to tobacco exposure.
TH E TEST:
All of the children had detectible nicotine levels on their hands and all but one had detectable cotinine in saliva. N EXT STEP: Researchers want to explore how much secondary exposure to smoking affects children’s health. They also want to look at preventive measures for better protecting children from overall tobacco exposure.
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