Passive smoking can triple the risk of ADHD in children – Nyheter24

News A study shows that children who are exposed to secondhand smoke are three times more likely to develop ADHD than other children.

Researchers in Spain and the United States have found that children exposed to more than an hour of passive smoking on the day are almost three times as likely to develop ADHD than children who do not. If parents smoke in the home, it means several hours of secondhand smoke per day for children.

Children exposed to secondhand smoke for up to one hour per day runs about twice as likely to develop ADHD than other children, writes Scientific American.

The research is based on a study from 2011 in which the US has collected data from 12,000 American parents. Already four years ago saw a clear connection between ADHD and passive smoking, but the study has been criticized because the kids do not need to have had ADHD diagnoses by physicians. It has instead chosen to make their own ADHD assessment based on parents’ responses in the survey.

Spanish scientists crunching the numbers

Now, have researchers in Spain used the survey to figure out exactly how ADHD is over-represented in the children who are passive smokers, writes Reuters .

The researcher Frank Bandiera in health and research center in the University at Houson, Texas, says Reuters that the investigation is not sufficient in its implementation.

– I think the research is still at an early stage and the results are inconclusive. But since passive tobacco smoke has been associated with a lot of physical illnesses, parents should avoid smoking around their children, he says according to Scientific American.