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May 22, 2007Cigarette Use may Explain Asthma Epidemic in Children |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: The rise in cigarette use by adults over the past century may explain the asthma epidemic in children according to a study by researchers at the Mailman School of Public Health. The study is published this month in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). "We have identified parallel increases in childhood asthma and cigarette use among adults during the past century in the United States. These parallel trends suggest that the increase in cigarette use may be a contributing factor to the rise in asthma among children during the same period through increased exposure to environmental tobacco smoke," said Dr. Goodwin. Children breathe more air than adults and have narrower airways, so ETS is a greater causal risk factor of asthma in children. The risk for the development of childhood asthma was 2.5 times greater in young children with mothers who smoke more than 10 cigarettes per day indoors compared with mothers who smoke fewer cigarettes or not at all. Cigarette use, currently considered one of the most pressing public health problems worldwide, has become increasingly concentrated among economically and socially disadvantaged segments of the population, as well as among younger persons.
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