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Secondhand Smoke Effects Children's Learning Ability

Source: Reuters
Published: May 7, 2002

A new study shows that even a small amount of secondhand smoke can hinder a child's learning ability, affecting reading, math and reasoning skills, Reuters reported May 6.

Researchers at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital examined data compiled between 1988 and 1994 for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In particular, the researchers looked at levels of cotinine, a substance produced when nicotine is broken down by the body.

The researchers identified 4,399 children between the ages of 6 and 16 who have low levels of cotinine and who said that they had not smoked cigarettes for the past five years.

The researchers determined that the more cotinine that children had in their bodies, the lower their reading, math and reasoning scores.

"Reading was the strongest effect we saw," said study leader Kimberly Yolton of the Children's Environmental Health Center at the hospital. "We saw pretty solid changes in cognitive scores."

According to Yolton, 43 percent of all children in the U.S., or 13 million children total, are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke in their homes, and 85 percent of children have detectable levels of cotinine in their blood.

"This study provides further incentive for states to set public-health standards to protect children from exposure to environmental tobacco smoke," said Yolton.

The study's findings were released at the annual conference of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Baltimore.