Children Who Live in Apartments May Be Exposed to Second-hand Smoke Even If Their Parents Don't Smoke

I experimented with smoking when I was in my early teens, but I never really took up the habit seriously until I was in my twenties. The first time I smoked a cigarette I was about 12-years-old. I took one puff and then promptly threw up. I thought to myself: "What a dumb grown-up habit to have."

It was just at that time that my parents took me over to my grandparent's house early in the morning every day because they both had to go to work. Both of them smoked and they would both light up as soon as we got in the car. It was in the wintertime, so all of the windows were rolled up and the heat was turned on. I nearly passed out from all that passive smoke. I swore again that I would never smoke, or expose my kids to it.

But then that good old peer pressure kicked in. All the other kids in the neighborhood were experimenting with smoking and I had to join in, of course. When I got my first restaurant job when I was 21, all of the other managers would go out to this bar and smoke cigarettes and drink beer. That when both my alcohol and tobacco habits began.

My story is not that different from other smokers and drinkers, but now it may be true that kids who live in apartments even where both of the parents don't smoke, may be exposed to second-hand smoke. According to Medical News Today:

" A child who lives in an apartment where nobody smokes has a significantly higher risk of still inhaling tobacco smoke compared to a child who lives in a detached house where nobody in the household smokes, researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center wrote in the journal Pediatrics."

In a study of 5,000 children, 84% of them had blood tests that revealed that they had been exposed to second-hand cigarette smoke. The study showed that even when parents quit smoking or go outside of the building to smoke, children who live in apartment buildings may still be exposed to dangerous second-hand smoke.

The blood level of a substance called cotinine, which accumulates in the blood when people are exposed to cigarette smoke, was 45% higher in the children who resided in apartments as compared to those who lived in detached homes.

The authors of the study took into account socioeconomic factors as well as the children's age. But I wonder how many of the children were smoking behind their parent's backs?

The researchers believe that the second hand smoke seeped through the floors, through the ventilation system, or under the doors from apartments where people smoked into the non-smoking apartments. At least it's not as bad as being couped up in a hot car every day with a couple of people lighting up.

Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/211297.php