Smoking can affect your progeny too!

Nigerian Tribune: Smoking has serious effects on health as it is known to cause diseases like cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Festus Ojudun reports that children of smoking parents also stand the risk of developing these diseases.

It is no longer news that smoking affects human health, neither is it unknown that smokers stand the risk of cancer of the lungs and other diseases, but recent studies have established a connection between the smoking habits of parents and respiratory diseases in their children. One of such studies recently carried out by Dr. Bert Arets of the University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, has established a link between smoking habit in parents and respiratory diseases in their children.

The research entitled ‘Healthy Children with Smoking Parents, Are they Really Healthy?’ was presented at the American Thoracic Society 2007 International Conference held on May 2. In this research, it was discovered that children of smokers who do not show any signs of respiratory problems may still be experiencing damaging changes in their airways that could lead to lung diseases later in life.

According to Dr. Arets, “everyone knows that children of smokers have more respiratory problems – more puffing, wheezing, and cases of pneumonia – but until now, we haven’t known if lung function is impaired in children of smokers who do not have any respiratory complaints or diagnosed lung problems.”

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