SAVE OUR CHILDRENS FROM SMOKE: NEWS IN SCIENCE : SMOKES AND CHILD HEALTH

News Smokes and Child health in Science

Provided by
DR WIDODO JUDARWANTO
SAVE CHILDRENS FROM SMOKE
Working together make a smoke-free homes and smoke-free zones for all children
Yudhasmara Foundation
JL TAMAN BENDUNGAN ASAHAN 5 JAKARTA PUSAT, JAKARTA INDONESIA 10210
PHONE : (021) 70081995 – 5703646
email : judarwanto@gmail.com
www.savechildfromsmokers.blogspot.com/

.

Smoking mothers put second child at risk: study,Posted Thu Aug 14, 2008 7:50am AEST
Map: Liverpool 2170
A large Australian health study has found that women who smoke in their first pregnancy are also putting their second baby at risk of being born small or premature.
Researchers from Sydney's Liverpool Hospital examined the medical records from almost 245,000 mothers who gave birth to two children.
They found women who smoked in the first pregnancy but not the second still had a higher risk of having a pre-term baby.
One fifth of Australian women still smoke while pregnant.
The more women smoked, the more likely they were to have smaller babies or infants prone to becoming sick after birth.
Tags: health, medical-research, reproduction-and-contraception , pregnancy-and-childbirth, smoking, australia, nsw, liverpool-2170, sydney-2000
News on Tobacco Smoking Stop-tabac.chPrepared by Jean-François EtterJuly 15, 2008
Passive smoking and breast cancer in never smokers: prospective study and meta-analysisQUITTING SMOKING PAYS DIVIDENDSUSA: Study shows youth smoking rates have stagnated
Passive smoking and breast cancer in never smokers: prospective study and meta-analysis
BACKGROUND: Active smoking has little or no effect on women's risk of developing breast cancer, but it has been suggested that passive exposure to tobacco smoke may increase this risk among women who have never smoked. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the possible relationship between passive smoking and breast cancer risk within the Million Women Study, a large UK prospective study, and to report a meta-analysis of published results. METHODS: In the large prospective study, 224 917 never smokers who completed a questionnaire that asked women whether their parents had smoked and if their current partner smoked were followed up for an average of 3.5 years for incident breast cancer. In the meta-analysis, studies that had recorded exposure information prospectively and retrospectively were considered separately. Main outcome measures Adjusted relative risk of breast cancer in ne! ver smokers who were passively exposed to tobacco smoke at various ages compared with never smokers with no such exposure. RESULTS: In the prospective study, 2518 incident invasive breast cancers occurred during follow-up and the adjusted relative risk of breast cancer for passive exposure either as a child or as an adult vs neither exposure was 0.98 (95% CI 0.88-1.09); results were similarly null for childhood exposure (0.98, 0.88-1.08) and adult exposure (1.02, 0.89-1.16) separately. We identified seven other studies with prospectively recorded exposure data; when results of all eight studies were combined (including 5743 never smokers with breast cancer), the aggregate relative risk was 0.99 (0.93-1.05) for any passive exposure. The aggregate findings differed substantially (P = 0.0002) between these 8 studies and 17 other studies with retrospectively recorded information (including 5696 never smokers with breast cancer). CONCLUSIONS: Aggregate results from studi! es with prospectively reported information show that the incidence of breast cancer is similar in women who did and did not report passive exposure to tobacco smoke either as a child or as an adult. The aggregate findings from the retrospective studies may have been distorted by some women becoming more likely to report past exposures because they knew that they had breast cancer. http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/dyn110v1 Int J Epidemiol. 2008 Jun 10. [Epub ahead of print] Pirie K, Beral V, Peto R, Roddam A, Reeves G, Green J; for the Million Women Study Collaborators.Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, England.
QUITTING SMOKING PAYS DIVIDENDS
Financial information service Moneyfacts estimates that anyone who gave up a year ago could have made more than 3,000 if the cash was saved. A 30-a-day smoker would save about 250 a month by quitting, which would have grown to 3,108 in a typical variable rate saver account. But publicans say they have been hit financially by smoking bans. The smoking industry is worth an estimated 12bn in the UK. Source: BBC OnlineDate: 2008-06-27URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7477440.stm%3Cbr%3E
USA: Study shows youth smoking rates have stagnated
An article in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows, alarmingly, that the decline in smoking rates among high school students seen from 1997 to 2003 continues to stagnate. These results are an ominous sign as an overwhelming majority of smokers begin their deadly addiction during this critical stage of development in their lives. Bernadette A. Toomey, President and CEO of the American Lung Association said, "Ninety percent of smokers start before their 21st birthday, and tragically up to one-half of them will eventually die from a tobacco-related disease. This is a clear warning sign that our leaders must summon the political will to implement lifesaving policies we know will work to end our nation's tobacco epidemic." Legislation is pending before the U.S. Congress granting the U.S. Food and Drug Admini! stration (FDA) the authority to regulate tobacco products to help reduce the pervasive pedaling of tobacco products to our children. The legislation has passed out of committee in both the House and Senate, but is awaiting floor action in both houses. Toomey explained, "Congress needs to pass the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act to curb tobacco marketing to our youth. Without this legislation in place, the tobacco companies will continue to market and sell candy-flavoured cigarettes and other products aimed at addicting our nation's most vulnerable citizens." These results also speak to the states' not fully funding and implementing comprehensive tobacco prevention and cessation programmess. Thirty two states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico earned "Fs" for failing to adequately fund their programmes in the American Lung Association's State of Tobacco Control 2007 report released in January. Only six states funded prevention prog! rammes at the levels recommended by the CDC. Toomey stated, " The failure of states to fully fund comprehensive tobacco prevention programmess is inexcusable - especially when examined in light of the amount of tobacco revenue that comes into their states each year. These programmes are proven and effective at reducing youth smoking rates." Source: www.Ash.org.uk and News-Medical.Net, 26 June 2008 Link: http://tinyurl.com/5otr6y
Ear Infections In Children Linked To Passive Smoking
ScienceDaily (May 19, 2008) — A new report from Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research has found a strong link between childhood ear infections and exposure to tobacco smoke.
The families of 100 Aboriginal children and 180 non-Aboriginal children participated in the Kalgoorlie Otitis Media Research Project, allowing the collection of social, demographic, environmental and biological data to investigate the causes of otitis media (middle ear infections). The children had regular ear examinations from birth until 2 years of age.
Chief Investigator Dr Deborah Lehmann, who heads the Institute's infectious diseases research, said ear infections were the most common reason that young children see a doctor and can cause life-long problems.
"Up to 20 per cent of children have more than three ear infections between 1 and 2 years of age. If their hearing is damaged, it can seriously affect their educational outcomes and social circumstances in adulthood," Dr Lehmann said.
"In Aboriginal children, these ear infections typically start at a younger age, are much more common and more likely to result in hearing loss."
Key findings from the project include:
Otitis media was diagnosed at least once in 74% of Aboriginal children and 45% of non-Aboriginal children.
64% of Aboriginal children and 40% of non-Aboriginal children were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke.
If we eliminated exposure to tobacco smoke we estimate that we could reduce ear infections by 27% in Aboriginal children and 16% in non-Aboriginal children
The impact of passive smoking in the home on ear infections was reduced if the children also attended day care.
Dr Lehmann said there is evidence that passive smoking can increase the adherence of bacteria in the respiratory passages and depress the immune system.
"These results highlight the importance of reducing children's exposure to passive smoking, and this is particularly important for Aboriginal people where the rates of both smoking and otitis media are high," she said.
"Few Aboriginal children have access to formal childcare despite studies showing that it is an effective way to improve early development and educational outcomes for disadvantaged children. The fact that it could also reduce the burden of ear infections in Aboriginal children adds weight to calls for appropriate childcare facilities to be provided."
The results are published in the latest edition of the Medical Journal of Australia.
Outdoor smoking affects children indoors.Parents who smoke outside their house are still exposing their children to the harmful effects of passive smoking, an Australian study suggests.
The study found that the levels of respirable suspended particles, including nicotine, were significantly higher in houses where smokers lived than in smoke-free homes - even if they only smoked outside.
The findings appear in the latest issue of Indoor Air.
Lead author of the study, Dr Krassi Rumchev of Curtin University of Technology, says the findings indicate that the level of passive smoking by children at home may be underestimated, as those whose parents smoked outside were exposed to levels of environmental tobacco smoke high enough to cause harm.
"According to the study, smoking outdoors seems inadequate to protect children," Rumchev says.
"[The] results demonstrate clearly that if parents want a smoke-free environment for children, they need to stop smoking."
She adds that children were more likely to have respiratory illnesses including asthma, coughs and colds than those in tobacco-free households.
Clinging on
The researchers urge doctors to advise parents to quit and make their homes completely smoke-free.
Rumchev says smoke-free public places have worked well and the next step is smoke-free homes for children.
Researchers measured nicotine and respirable particles over 24 hours in the living rooms of 92 Perth households with children aged between four and nine years old.
Although 39 houses (42%) had smokers, only 4% said smoking occurred inside.
Levels were low in homes without smokers and considerably higher in houses where smoking was reported.
"[The] findings are concerning, and it's a clear message that more education programs are required and we need to concentrate on making residential settings smoke-free," she says.
She says smokers appear to disperse pollutants into the home when returning inside.
"When people come inside they're still breathing out smoke and it contaminates the air. It's enough to do harm," Rumchev says.
"Nicotine attaches to the hair and body, and pollutants are dispersed into the air off clothes, because small particles can attach to clothes."
Coughs and wheezes
Half of the children in the study had lower respiratory symptoms, such as asthma, wheezing and shortness of breath, while 42% had upper respiratory symptoms, including coughing and runny nose.
Respiratory illness was more prevalent in households with smokers than smoke-free homes. Children exposed to higher air nicotine levels were three times more likely to have asthma or wheeze than those not exposed.
The study also found that those with coughs or runny noses were exposed to higher nicotine levels than children without these symptoms.
The researchers found that air-conditioning or opening windows did not sufficiently reduce environmental tobacco smoke.
They also say that particulate levels related to gas heating and cooking were accounted for in this study.
The study adds to previous research, which shows that environmental tobacco smoke impacts more in early childhood when the immune system and lungs are developing.
About 8% of childhood asthma and 13% of major lower respiratory illnesses in Australian children are due to passive smoking.
Tags: diseases-and-disorders, asthma, respiratory-diseases, nicotine, smoking, tobacco
Girls and children exposed to tobacco smoke benefit more from montelukast (singulair)
Published: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 15:14 in Health & Medicine
Learn more about: benefit girls journal of allergy and clinical immunology montelukast singulair tobacco smoke
Girls and children exposed to tobacco smoke respond particularly well to montelukast (Singulair) according to researchers at National Jewish Medical and Research Center. Associate Professor of Pediatrics Nathan Rabinovitch, MD, and his colleagues also identified two biomarkers that may help physicians predict even more precisely which patients will benefit from montelukast. “These findings will help doctors know in advance which patients are most likely to benefit from montelukast and to tailor an effective treatment regimen for specifically them,” said Dr. Rabinovitch.
The study was recently published online and will appear in the June issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Inhaled corticosteroids are considered the first-line treatment for cases of persistent asthma. However, steroids alone do not effectively control asthma in 30 percent to 40 percent of patients and they may have some side effects, especially in children. In those cases, a secondary medication is often used. Montelukast is one such medication.
Montelukast, one of the most widely prescribed medications for asthma and allergies, blocks the action of chemicals called leukotrienes, which contribute to inflammation. However, physicians have found that montelukast is quite variable in its effectiveness, helping some patients but not others. Dr. Rabinovitch and his colleagues set out to better understand its variable effectiveness.
They followed the 27 asthmatic students from the Kunsberg School on the National Jewish campus for five months. The children received daily montelukast or a placebo without any change in their other asthma medications. The primary measure of asthma control was how often children needed to use their short-acting rescue medication albuterol.
Before the children began taking montelukast, researchers found that when leukotriene levels in their urine rose, the children used 20 to 25% more albuterol two days later. Once they began taking montelukast, however, children did not need to take albuterol as often when their leukotriene levels rose. Two groups of children responded particularly well to montelukast: girls and children with high levels of cotinine in their urine, which indicated exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. Both had statistically significant reduced sensitivity to leukotrienes once they began taking montelukast.
“When looking at a general population of patients, montelukast does not appear to be very effective,” said Dr. Rabinovitch. “However, in certain patients, the choice of motelukast may be warranted, particularly in school-age girls and children exposed to tobacco smoke.”
Dr. Rabinovitch and his colleagues also found that measuring exhaled nitric oxide, a measure of inflammation in patients’ breath, and leukotrienes in their urine, could also help them predict which patients would respond well to montelukast-- those with a high leukotriene/nitric oxide ratio.
“Increasingly we have come to understand that asthma is not just one disease; it is more likely several diseases that present with similar symptoms. Thus different medications are likely to work for different patients,” said Dr. Rabinovitch. “It is important that we be more selective and tailor our medication regimen so that each child receives the most safe and effective treatment for their type of asthma.”
Source: National Jewish Medical and Research Center
Exposure to Smoking in Movies Influences Kids Lighting Up. This finding suggests that the process which leads children to initiate smoking begins much earlier than adolescence.
HANOVER, NH—New research from Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) strengthens the case that children's exposure to smoking in movies influences their decision to start smoking. It further suggests that smoking in movies seen in early childhood has an equally significant impact on that decision as movie smoking exposure closer to adolescence. The study, published in the January issue of Pediatrics, was the first of its kind to focus on elementary school children, and the first to update the children's exposure to movie smoking over time.
Lead author is Dr. Linda Titus-Ernstoff, a professor of community and family medicine and of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School (DMS), and the associate director of the Hood Center for Children and Families. The research team surveyed more than 2,200 children ages 9-12 from 26 schools in New Hampshire and Vermont. Children were asked about movies they had seen and their smoking behavior at an initial baseline survey and at two follow-up surveys. Children who had already tried smoking before the baseline survey were not included in the follow-up surveys.
At the baseline survey, children were given randomly sampled lists containing 50 of the 550 top box office movies over the prior 5.5 years and asked which movies they had seen. Children were interviewed again in two follow-up surveys, one and two years later, about their smoking behavior and the movies they had seen based on updated lists of 50 of the 200 top box office movies and video rentals during the previous year.
By the third survey, 10 percent of the children had initiated smoking. Results from the three surveys showed that each child had seen an average of 37 out of the 150 popular movies they were asked about, exposing them to an average of 150 smoking occurrences. About 80 percent of the children's exposure was due to smoking images portrayed in youth-rated movies (G, PG, PG-13).
"The results indicated that the earliest exposure to movie smoking was as important as exposure measured at the two follow-ups in predicting children's smoking initiation," said Titus-Ernstoff. "This finding suggests that the process which leads children to initiate smoking begins much earlier than adolescence. Viewing smoking in the movies may influence the decision to smoke in more than a third of children."
The take-home message from this study is that exposure to movie smoking occurring during early childhood is as influential as exposure that occurs nearer to the time of smoking initiation, Titus-Ernstoff says. Even young children who see smoking in movies may be at risk for smoking later on. Parents also need to be aware, she adds, that most of children's exposure to movie smoking comes from youth-rated movies, and that they should try to reduce their children's viewing of movies that contain smoking.
Study co-authors of the study include Drs. Madeline Dalton, who led the research study, Anna Adachi-Mejia, Meghan R. Longacre and Michael Beach, all with Dartmouth Medical School. Additionally, Dalton is director of the Hood Center for Children and Families, and Adachi-Mejia is assistant director of the Center 's Community Health Research Program; Beach is with the Department of Anesthesiology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Secondhand Smoke Worse for Children
Kids at higher risk, since they breathe in more air by weight than adults, study says
Posted October 20, 2008
MONDAY, Oct. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Children exposed to secondhand smoke often have levels of carbon monoxide in their blood that are similar to those of adult smokers, and frequently higher levels than adults exposed to secondhand smoke, a new study found. The study, to be presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting that concludes Oct. 22 in Orlando, Fla., said the younger the child, the greater the potential for exposure.
"The physiology of children -- especially the youngest -- is different from that of adults," Dr. Branden E. Yee, of the anesthesiology department at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, said in a news release issued by the society. "Children breathe in a greater amount of air per body weight compared to adults."
The study measured levels of carboxyhemoglobin, which is formed when carbon monoxide binds to the blood, in 200 children between the ages of 1 and 12. The exact ramifications of high levels of carboxyhemoglobin are not entirely known, but long-term, low-level exposure includes changes in heart and lung tissue as it hampers delivery of oxygen to body tissue.
While household and environmental factors such as stoves, heaters and automobiles are potential sources of carbon monoxide exposure, secondhand cigarette smoke is often the most likely source of elevated carboxyhemoglobin, the researchers said.
Yee said educating parents about the need to change their smoking habits, especially around children, is vital.
"Personalized education coupled with the act of physically showing a parent the carboxyhemoglobin measurement in his or her child's blood may provide a graphic and concrete message to that parent," he said.
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about secondhand smoke.
State lawmakers want smoking in cars with children banned . OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - In a state that already has banned smoking inside restaurants and bars and texting in cars, lawmakers want to snuff out smoking in cars if children are in the vehicle.Lawmakers pushing the measure say that it's a common sense bill that protects a child's health, and everyone seems to agree. There's almost no opposition against the bill, including from the tobacco industry."We are such a strong state in helping adults stop smoking," said Rep. Shay Schual-Berke, D-Normandy Park, the House bill's prime sponsor. "Why aren't we protecting kids? This is a very obvious public health issue we can do something about."Two measures are moving through the Legislature. Both would make smoking in the car with a child present a secondary offense, meaning that law-enforcement agents can't pull over a motorist just for seeing a child and a lit cigarette in the same vehicle.The difference between the bills is the age of a child. In Schual-Berke's measure, the cutoff age is 18, while the Senate version's is 13.Schual-Berke said she is not looking for another way to ticket motorists, and has included an amendment in her bill that would allow a six-month grace period for a public awareness campaign.If the measures become law, Washington would join California, Arkansas, Louisiana and Puerto Rico in banning smoking when kids are in the vehicle, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.The House and Senate bills have cleared committees and now await a floor vote.Levels of smoke particles are much higher in a car that has the windows closed than in bars that allow smoking, said David Kalman, a professor of environmental health at the University of Washington.His research found that the levels in a car with the windows closed are 6 to 10 milligrams per cubic meter. Citing another project in the New York-New Jersey area, he said levels in bars were 2.4 milligrams. The EPA target for healthy air, Kalman said, is .04 milligrams."A car is much worse than a smoky bar," Kalman said. "I think it's a real bad idea to expose children to cigarette smoke in a car."He added that cigarette smoke spreads in a car equally, so that it doesn't matter where the smoker is sitting.Schual-Berke, who is a cardiologist, said second hand smoke around children is linked to Sudden Infant Death syndrome, and a number of other conditions that can appear later in life, including asthma, miscarriages and cancer."I can't imagine if a parent knew this, I don't think a responsible parent would continue smoking in front of a child in a car," she said. "It's hard to argue against a bill that will inform parents."