Named the consequences for children who inhaled the cigarette smoke of their parents

Children whose parents inhaled cigarette smoke are more likely to develop asthma, a new study says. Even more troubling is the evidence that scientists have found that tobacco can harm people’s health two generations later.

A new study has found that children are much more likely to develop asthma if their father was exposed to tobacco smoke as a child. The Guardian.

Children are even more at risk of developing a common lung disease if their father was a smoker, according to an international team of researchers.

The findings, published in the European Respiratory Journal, provide additional evidence for the possible existence of a “transgenerational effect” in which smoking can harm the health of people born two generations later.

“We found that the risk of non-allergic asthma in children increased by 59% if their fathers were exposed to secondhand smoke as children, compared to children whose fathers were not exposed. The risk was even higher, at 72%, if the fathers were exposed to secondhand smoke and continued to smoke themselves,” says one of the co-authors of the study Jiacheng Liu from the University of Melbourne.

The study was conducted by a team of scientists from Australia, the UK and Sri Lanka, writes The Guardian.

Dr. Dinh Bui, another co-author, says: “Our results show how the harm caused by smoking can affect not only smokers, but also their children and grandchildren.”

Given the findings of the researchers, men should try to avoid smoking if possible to reduce the risk of health effects on their sons or offspring, urges Dr. Bui.

John Foster, Health Policy Manager at Asthma + Lung UK, admits: “This study is truly shocking in showing that the negative effects of smoking can persist for generations. The fact that children born today have a 59% increased risk of developing asthma if their father was exposed to secondhand smoke as a child shows the enormous impact smoking has on other people’s health.”

The findings are based on researchers’ analysis of detailed health data from 1,689 pairs of fathers and their offspring collected as part of the Long-Term Health Study of Tasmanians in Australia.

The paper states: “Our results show that when boys are passively exposed to their parents’ tobacco smoke before the age of 15, their offspring have an increased risk of non-allergic childhood asthma, but not allergic asthma. Father’s exposure to smoke before the age of 15 is a major risk factor for developing non-allergic asthma.”

Professor Jonathan Grigg, chairman of the European Respiratory Society Tobacco Control Committee, who was not involved in the study, said the findings add to the evidence that smoking is passed down from generation to generation.

Children must be protected from further harm if ministers take further drastic action to stop smoking, he said. He called for the expansion of smoking cessation services and for adults to be regularly asked at any NHS appointment if they smoke and offered assistance in quitting smoking if they did.

Dr Bui says smoking-induced epigenetic changes — gene modifications that do not change a person’s DNA sequence — were the most likely cause of the significantly increased risk of asthma in children whose fathers inhaled secondhand smoke in their youth.

“Epigenetic changes can be caused by environmental exposures, such as smoking, and can be passed on to the next generation. In particular, when a boy is exposed to tobacco smoke, it can cause epigenetic changes in his germ cells. These are the cells that continue to produce sperm. Later, these changes will be passed on to his children, which, in turn, can harm their health, including increasing the risk of developing asthma. In boys, germ cells continue to develop until puberty, and this is a vulnerable period when exposure to tobacco smoke can affect cells and cause epigenetic changes,” says Dr. Bui.